Almagro, Tsonga open Monte Carlo with wins

MONTE CARLO, Monaco, April 11 (UPI) -- Clay-court specialist Nicolas Almagro defeated fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers Monday in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco.

Almagro, seeded ninth, eased by Granollers 6-3, 6-3 as he begins his hunt for his third title on clay courts this season.

Also winning Monday was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who rebounded from a 4-6 loss in the opening set to knock off Argentine Juan Monaco by taking the next two sets 6-3, 6-2. Tsonga, a former Australian Open runner-up who was born in France and lives in Switzerland, is seeded 12th.

In other Monday matches, German Florian Mayer upset 10th-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 2-6, 6-3; No. 11 Serb Viktor Troicki eliminated French wild card Jean-Rene Lisnard 7-6 (7-4), 6-1; No. 13 Frenchman Richard Gasquet defeated Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 5-7, 6-3, 6-4; No. 15 Croat Marin Cilic breezed by Italian qualifier Filippo Volandri 6-2, 6-1.

Also winning in the first round were Belgian qualifier Olivier Rochus, Czech wild card Radek Stepanek, Finn Jarkko Nieminen, Portuguese qualifier Frederico Gil, Spaniards Daniel Gimeno-Traver and Tommy Robredo, and Dutchman Robin Haase.

Monte Carlo, which offers a $625,000 pay day for the winner, is the third ATP Masters event of the year. Rafael Nadal, the defending champion and a six-time winner here, is this week's top seed. Roger Federer is the No. 2 seed.