Mason, Ohio – Former world No. 1 Rafael Nadal and former round winners Wednesday at the $2.43 million Western & Southern Open, an ATP Masters and U.S. Open Series event.
The second-seeded Nadal handled French qualifier Julien Benneteau 6-4, 7-5, while a fourth-seeded Murray mauled oft-injured former top-five star David Nalbandian of Argentina 6-4, 6-1 on the hardcourts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. Nadal and Murray were a pair of shocking early losers last week in Montreal.
Murray captured this Masters tournament back in 2008.
Meanwhile, sixth-seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils topped Croat Ivan Dodig 4-6, 6-3, 4-0, retired, and seventh-seeded American Mardy Fish popped nine aces and leveled former top-five Russian Nikolay Davydenko 6-0, 6-2 in 62 minutes. Fish was last week's Masters runner-up to Novak Djokovic in Montreal and lost to Swiss icon Roger Federer in last year's finale here in suburban Cincinnati.
Ninth-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro held off 6-foot-10 Croat Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7-2) to reach the round of 16.
Additional second-round wins came for Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek, Spaniard Fernando Verdasco and German Philipp Kohlschreiber. Stepanek, a surprise titlist in Washington, D.C. two weeks ago, defeated Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) on Day 4 here.
This week's winner will collect $496,000.
Fox News First
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time.