MADRID, 19 October 2005 — Fifth seed David Nalbandian eased into the third round of the Madrid Masters with a comfortable 7-6, 6-3 win over Austrian Juergen Melzer yesterday.
The 23-year-old Argentine, who lost to Marat Safin in last year’s final, only dropped one point in the first set tie break and broke Melzer’s serve twice to take the second set.
Nalbandian was joined by 11th-seed David Ferrer of Spain who survived a second set wobble to dismiss qualifier Agustin Calleri of Argentina 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
Calleri defeated Albert Costa on Monday but was unable to contain Ferrer in the third set and he slipped to his third defeat this year to the Spaniard.
American Robby Ginepri came from a set down to beat France’s Sebastien Grosjean 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in their second round match — the first time the 23-year-old has beaten Grosjean.
Ginepri has reached the quarterfinals of his last four tournaments and also got to the semifinals of the US Open where he lost in five sets to Andre Agassi.
Earlier on Tuesday, giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic won the battle of the big servers when he came from a set down to edge Greg Rusedski 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 in their first round clash.
Karlovic, who also beat the British No. 2 when they met in Washington earlier this season, reeled off 28 aces on his way to a victory that took two hours and 17 minutes.
The 26-year-old, who at 2.08 meters is the tallest man on the ATP circuit, will now face another big hitter in second-seeded Andy Roddick of the United States.
“If you could have written the worst draw for me then this was it,” said Rusedski. “With the altitude here and the hard courts his serve was even faster than usual and it’s not fun for anyone to play him.
“I didn’t do much wrong and didn’t lose my serve but he played some really good tennis.” Later yesterday, local favorite Juan Carlos Ferrero was to play Max Mirnyi of Belarus.
Top seed and world No. 2 Rafael Nadal is set to make his debut in a second round match against Victor Hanescu of Romania on Wednesday but there is still a question mark over the 19-year-old’s participation because of tendinitis in his knees.
