Ferrero, Berdych advance in Monte Carlo

MONTE CARLO, Monaco, April 12 (UPI) -- Top 10 seeds Juan Carlos Ferrero and Tomas Berdych were easy first-round winners Monday at the $2.97 million Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco.

Ferrero, seeded ninth, stopped Marcel Granollers 6-0, 6-3, taking 64 percent of the points in the match. The 10th-seeded Berdych needed just 65 minutes to dispatch Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-1. Neither winner dropped serve in advancing to the second round.

Other seeded winners were No. 11 David Ferrer, who defeated Peter Luczak 6-2, 6-4, and 14th-seeded Juan Monaco, who overcame four service breaks in a 7-5, 7-5 win over Jarkko Nieminen.

Other first-round victors were Ernests Gulbis, David Nalbandian, Richard Gasquet, Julien Benneteau, Andrey Golubev, Philipp Petzschner, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Nicolas Almagro and Benjamin Becker.

World No. 2 Novak Djokovic is the top seed this week with Rafael Nadal seeded second. Nadal, 29-1 in lifetime in the tournament, beat Djokovic in last year's Monte Carlo final.

The clay-court Monte Carlo Masters is considered a key tuneup for the French Open, which will be May 24-June 7 this year.