Soderling reaches 3rd round at Barcelona

Barcelona: Second-seeded Robin Soderling advanced to the third round of the Barcelona Open thanks to a 7-5, 7-5 win over Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina on Tuesday.

The Swede, the top-seeded player following the withdrawal of five-time champion Rafael Nadal, served up five aces and broke Chela on four of five opportunities to reach the last 16.

Soderling was joined by Nicolas Almagro and Ivan Navarro after straight-sets victories by the Spanish players. Jurgen Melzer, Lleyton Hewitt and Feliciano Lopez also won.

Italian qualifier Simone Bolelli won his first-round match after ninth-seeded Tommy Robredo retired while trailing 7-6 (7), 4-6, 1-3 due to a back injury. Tenth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina also exited following a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 defeat to Spanish qualifier Daniel Gimeno-Traver. They were the only two seeds to exit.

Other first-round winners were Jeremy Chardy, Denis Istomin, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Victor Hanescu, Alberto Martin and Ernests Gulbis.