Monaco: Seeded players Fernando Verdasco of Spain and Jurgen Melzer of Austria both advanced to the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday.
The 13th-seeded Verdasco, a finalist here in 2010, dropped serve twice in the first set, but then did not face another break point as he rallied to beat Belgium's Olivier Rochus 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. He next plays Croatia's Ivan Dodig.
The 15th-seeded Melzer had an easier match, breaking Polish player Lukasz Kubot's serve five times en route to a 6-2, 7-5 win. He will face Marcel Granollers of Spain or Frenchman Julien Benneteau.
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Paul-Henri Mathieu of France took a little over one hour to thrash Donald Young 6-0, 6-1. Mathieu did save four break points of his own, but he broke Young's serve six times and clinched victory when the American sent a heavy forehand long.
"I was happy the way I was moving, and I was keeping the ball in the court," said Mathieu, who is finding his way back after a long-term knee injury. "I don't have the knees of a 20-year-old anymore. But I'm able to play 100 percent without any problems. Things are improving."
Mathieu will next play No. 12 Kei Nishikori of Japan or Spaniard Albert Ramos, runner-up on Sunday at the Grand Prix Hassan II tournament.
In other first-round play, there were straight-sets wins for Australia's Bernard Tomic, Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, and Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.
The 19-year-old Tomic was happy with how he mixed sliced forehands with heavy groundstrokes in his 6-4, 6-3 win against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
"Regardless of any surface, he's pretty hard to play against," Tomic said. "A lot of clay-court players play behind the line. But I think my tennis is something different. If I play my tennis, they struggle with my game even on clay."
Kohlschreiber won 6-4, 6-4 against Frenchman Guillaume Rufin, while Nieminen beat fellow veteran Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6 (3) to earn a second-round match against seven-time defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain.
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