STUTTGART, Germany, July 17 (UPI) -- Top-seeded Rafael Nadal and defending champion David Ferrer posted easy victories Tuesday in first-round play at the Mercedes Cup tournament in Germany.
Nadal continued his clay-court mastery with a 6-1, 6-1 rout of Alexander Waske that took just 73 minutes. He has won 89 of his last 90 clay-court matches.
Ferrer, seeded fourth in this year's tournament, swept by Lukas Lacko, 6-2, 6-2, even faster, finishing in 51 minutes. He won last week's clay-court tournament in Sweden.
Third-seeded Tomas Berdych hadd just as easy of a time, beating Nicolas Lapentti, 6-1, 6-1. Also, sixth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero defeated Gaston Gaudio, 6-1, 6-2; No. 7 Juan Ignacio Chela beat Max Mirnyi, 6-3, 6-3; and eighth-seeded Juan Monaco was a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Jan Hernych.
Fifth-seeded Guillermo Canas retired from his match with Stanislas Wawrinka after Wawrinka won the first game of the third set. Canas suffered a right thigh injury.
Also winning first-round matches Tuesday were Stefan Koubek, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Feliciano Lopez and Diego Hartfield.
