Monte Carlo Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka kicked off the defence of his Monte Carlo Masters title on Wednesday with a 6-1, 6-4 defeat of Argentine Juan Monaco to progress to the third round.
The seventh seed who lifted his first elite Masters 1000 title here a year ago as he beat compatriot Roger Federer for the title, spent 71 minutes in getting past Monaco.
“I played well, and I’m pleased to be back on clay.” said the winner, who broke five times from 14 chances. “It’s nice to be defending a title and starting it out like this.”
Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open winner, will await an opponent from ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov and Italian Fabio Fognini.
The Swiss comes onto the spring clay with a 17-4 match record and titles in Chennai and Rotterdam.
The 30-year-old successfully defended a title for the first time in January, winning Chennai for the second year in a row.
Spanish 16th seed Tommy Robredo crushed compatriot Marcel Granollers 6-1, 6-1 in an early match played under the first clouds of the week at this Mediterranean principality.
Novak Djokovic got away to a 6-1, 6-4 winning start to the clay season on Tuesday, with the locally based world number one pleased with a second-round defeat of Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Djokovic, who lives a few hundred metres from Court Central at the seaside Country Club, was happy to bring home the straight-set win in less than 90 minutes.
“For a first match on clay, it was pretty good,” said the winner of back-to-back hard court Masters 1000 titles in the US.
“I’m happy to have started so strong.
“There is a lot of work to be done on the clay, I knew I had a dangerous opponent, one who plays well on thin surface.
“I’m glad to be back home and playing against him in Monte Carlo,” said the 2014 semi-finalist. “I was very motivated and concentrated today on court.”
Djokovic is playing for the 142nd week on the ATP number one ranking, putting him one week ahead of Rafael Nadal on the top honour.
Roger Federer, Monte Carlo second seed, leads that statistical category with the all-time best of 302 weeks in the top spot.
Djokovic is also bidding to become the first player to win the opening three ATP Masters 1000 tournaments of the season after claiming Indian Wells and Miami honours.
