Nadal and Murray advance to 3rd round in Barcelona Open (Apr 26, 2017)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) Defending champion Rafael Nadal cruised past Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil 6-1, 6-2 to reach the third round of the Barcelona Open on Wednesday.
Top-seeded Andy Murray also advanced, but without having to play as Bernard Tomic withdrew before their second-round match because of a lower back injury.
Nadal, making his debut at the newly named ''Rafa Nadal'' center court in Barcelona, had a slow start to the second set against the 69th-ranked Brazilian, but recovered by winning the final six games to secure the victory.
''I think I played a solid match. I think it was a comfortable win,'' Nadal said. ''I played well, with the right intensity against a player that came in with a lot of victories on clay this year.''
The fifth-ranked Nadal is a nine-time champion at the clay-court tournament. He is coming off his 10th title at the Monte Carlo Masters.
Nadal will next play Kevin Anderson of South Africa.
The top-ranked Murray was originally going to skip the Barcelona Open but decided to play after being eliminated in the third round at the Monte Carlo Masters, when he blew a 4-0 lead in the deciding set to Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Murray is trying to regain his form going into the French Open following a right elbow injury that kept him out of the Miami Open and the Davis Cup quarterfinals.
He will play 40th-ranked Feliciano Lopez of Spain, who defeated Albert Montanes 6-2, 6-2.
It was the final career match for Montanes, who had announced last week that the Barcelona Open would be his last tournament after nearly 20 years on tour.
The 36-year-old Barcelona resident won six ATP titles and was ranked a career-high 22nd in 2010. His first-round victory over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Monday was the 255th of his career.
In other second round matches, fifth-seeded David Goffin of Belgium defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-5, 6-0, while qualifier Hyeon Chung of South Korea beat 12th-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3, 6-4.
