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montecarlotennismasters.com: April 16 2014 Monaco – On a record attendance day at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Rafael Nadal opened his bid for a ninth title by defeating Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 6-1.

The Spaniard was under pressure at the start, and stared down a double break as his Russian opponent led 3-1 and 30/40 on Nadal’s serve. But the left-hander turned the match around as he found his rhythm to reel off nine of the next 10 games to take the first set and open up a 4-0 lead in the second. He claimed his 49th victory at the Monte-Carlo Country Club in 73 minutes. Top seed Nadal goes on to face Italian Andreas Seppi, who battled past Pablo Andujar 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-4 in two hours and 48 minutes.

Roger Federer made a welcome return to the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Wednesday and opened his campaign in emphatic style, dismissing Radek Stepanek 6-1, 6-2 to reach the third round. The Swiss took a wild card to make his first appearance since 2011 at this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tournament. He notched his 24th win at the Monte-Carlo Country Club as he hit 14 winners to nine unforced errors and converted all four of his break points.

Stanislas Wawrinka made a statement of intent in his opening second-round match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Wednesday, blasting past the in-form Marin Cilic 6-0, 6-2 in just 46 minutes. The third-seeded Wawrinka lost just six points on serve and broke Cilic five times from seven opportunities. 

Wawrinka goes on to face 15th-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, who defeated Nicolas Mahut 7-6(3), 6-3 in one hour and 36 minutes. Wawrinka has a 6-3 FedEx ATP Head2Head lead over Almagro. Another Spaniard triumphed over a Frenchman when 11th seed Tommy Robredo defeated Julien Benneteau 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 to set a third-round clash with Milos Raonic.

Eighth seed Raonic finished strongly to defeat Yen-Hsun Lu 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-1. The Canadian fired 19 aces and converted five of his 19 break points to prevail in just under two hours. Italy’s Fabio Fognini set a third-round clash with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga after defeating Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 7-6(6), 6-4 in one hour and 44 minutes. The 10th seed exchanged 11 breaks of serve with Bautista Agut before claiming his 22nd win of the season.

Lucky loser Pablo Carreno Busta was the fourth Spanish winner on Wednesday as he rounded out the day’s action with a 6-3, 7-6(6) victory over French hope Gael Monfils. Carreno Busta was granted a spot in the main draw after Richard Gasquet withdrew and made the most of his chance when he beat Ivan Dodig in the first round.