Nadal and Ferrer cruise in Barcelona
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Rafael Nadal opened his bid for a sixth Barcelona Open title with a dominating 6-1, 6-1 win over Daniel Gimeno-Traver yesterday.
The top-ranked Nadal hammered his fellow Spaniard with his hard ground strokes, cruising to victory after breaking Gimeno-Traver's first two service games.
Nadal will face Santiago Giraldo of Colombia in the third round of the outdoor clay court.
Earlier, fourth-seeded David Ferrer made quick work of Carlos Berlocq to win 6-2, 6-2 and will meet Victor Hanescu, after the Romanian player beat 14th-seeded Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4.
Also, Juan Carlos Ferrero won 6-4, 7-5 against lucky loser Mischa Zverev of Germany, who replaced Andy Murray after the Briton withdrew with an elbow injury.
On Tuesday, seeded players Gael Monfils and Nicolas Almagro won hard-fought matches to advance to the third round.
The seventh-seeded Monfils rallied to beat Robin Haase 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 in his second tournament since being sidelined for nearly three months because of a wrist injury.
Almagro, seeded eighth, downed Pablo Andujar 7-5, 7-6 (1) to improve to 16-2 on clay this season and move within one victory of breaking into the top 10 for the first time. He is only six points behind current No. 10 Mardy Fish.
"When you're on the court you try not to think about that," said Almagro, who converted his fifth match point. "I still think I can play much better."
In the opening round, Milos Raonic easily dispatched Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-2 in only his second clay tournament after debuting at Monte Carlo last week.
"I was feeling comfortable out there. I'm happy with how I played and how it all went," Raonic said. "Stepanek is a tricky guy to play and he does a lot of different things, but I was happy with how I dealt with everything."
In Stuttgart, Germany's Andrea Petkovic sobbed during a changeover but set up a second round clash against Jelena Jankovic after battling past Austrian qualifier Tamira Paszek 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 at the Porsche Grand Prix. Jankovic found no resistance from Spaniard Beatriz Garcia Vidagany, easing through with a 6-1 6-2 victory.
Germany's Sabine Lisicki looked to be back to her best after an injury-hit 2010, firing 14 aces past Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova to win 7-5, 7-6. Lisicki will play world No. 6 Li Na of China.
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