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 faces Marcel Granollers of Spain or Frenchman Julien Benneteau.
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 next plays No. 12 Kei Nishikori of Japan or Spaniard Albert Ramos, runner-up 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.
Meanwhile, Nadal is fretting over his troublesome left knee as he attempts to win the Monte Carlo Masters for the eighth straight time and end a title drought stretching back to last year’s French Open.
Nadal has only just started practicing again after pulling out of his semifinal against Andy Murray at last month’s Sony Ericsson Open. After the withdrawal, Nadal had treatment for a knee tendon problem, having already skipped a chunk of the season to rest his knees after the Australian Open.
“It’s OK now, (I need) time to see how it is at the top level, (to) run without thinking about the knee, when I put all my pressure on the knee,” Nadal said yesterday. “It’s the start of the clay-court season for me, and hopefully it will work well.”
But the 10-time Grand Slam champion expects to be rusty in his second-round match against Nieminen tomorrow.
“I start(ed) to practice four days ago, it’s not enough after 15 days off without chances to practice a lot because I couldn’t move my knee,” the 25-year-old Nadal said. “I’m a little bit scared, but seems like today I am able to practice with no (problems).”
Nadal rested his knee after the Australian Open, where he lost his seventh straight tour final to top-ranked Novak Djokovic, and didn’t play again until several weeks later at Indian Wells — where he lost in the semifinal to Roger Federer in straight sets.
At the following tournament in Miami, his left knee flared up again. He withdrew hours before he was due to play Murray as a precaution.
“It’s not easy to explain, in English especially. Even in Spanish it will be difficult. I had a little bit broke in the tendon on the top, but especially behind the knee,” Nadal said. “I did (have an injection), I did the treatment two times.”
The Spaniard is relieved to be back on clay, where the strain is considerably easier on his knees.
“The worst surface for the players is the hard,” Nadal said. “I believe we are wrong in the tournament(s) to play more and more on hard (courts), and less and less on clay and grass.”
Since 2005, Nadal has won at Monte Carlo and Roland Garros every year except ‘09.
“It’s special to come back to a place where I have more success than (anyone),” said Nadal, who has won 37 consecutive matches in Monte Carlo and holds a 39-1 record. “The conditions worked for me in the past, I always played my best tennis here, I believe.”
