Murray, Federer, Simon & Tsonga passed to next round in Monte-Carlo Masters

Federer had flawless match while Murray suffered but survived

The 15^th seeded French Gilles Simon opened Tuesday’s exciting tennis program defeating Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in two sets 6-4, 6-3 for his second-round victory. Simon has beaten Dimitrov 5 times over 6 meetings marking his 11^th win of the season.

The 28-year-old Scottish Andy Murray (2) was moved around a lot by French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert (ATP 95) but survived and ended up winning in 3 sets 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Murray confessed it was “a scrappy match”, but he played a very good third set and advances to next round. We will certainly see more of 25-year-old Herbert in future tournaments playing both singles and doubles.

Andy Murray beat Herbert @CelinaLafuenteDeLavotha

Kim Sears (Andy Murray’s wife), Ugo Colombini and others in Andy’s camp @CelinaLafuenteDeLavotha

The 34-year-old Swiss Roger Federer (3) is back playing great tennis dismissing Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in two easy straight sets, racing into the third round. The Swiss is in top form after recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee for a meniscus tear, and illness that thwarted his performance in Miami. “I think in a way it was a perfect match,” said Federer. He is chasing his 25^th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown. There was standing room only in central court as everybody wanted to see Roger give a show of great tennis.

Roger Federer is back! @CelinaLafuenteDeLavotha

Roger Federer’s corner with Ivan Ljubicic in the front and Roger’s wife Mirka in the back with fancy white framed sunglasses @CelinaLafuenteDeLavotha

French Jo-Wilfried Tsonga did not have an easy time playing his first match of the tournament against clay court specialist Pablo Carreno Busta during two sets, two tie break 7-7, 7-6 in a long battle of over 2 hours.

Jo will face a French in the next round, the winner of the match between Richard Gasquet (9) and Wild carded Lucas Pouille programmed for today Wednesday on Court des Princes, a match not to be missed, as young Pouille will try his best to get to the next round, surely not an easy task against Gasquet.

Rafa, Novak and Stan featured this Wednesday!

It will be Swiss Stan Wawrinka (4) playing against German Kholschreiber who will start the day in central court on Wednesday, followed by Rafael Nadal (5) vs British Bedene, and then World No.1 and title-holder Novak Djokovic will confront Czech J. Vesely.