Nadal rushes to victory in Monte Carlo

MONTE CARLO, Monaco: Rafael Nadal rushed into the third round at the Monte Carlo Masters on Wednesday.

Top seed Nadal, champion at eight of the last nine editions, spent 72 minutes in smothering any upset hopes of Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili, who got off to a shock 3-1 lead before Spain´s king of clay reeled him in for a 6-4, 6-1 success.

Nadal steadied after going down early against Gabashvili, with the Spaniard improving to 49-2 at the event.

The top seed won six games in a row on his way to claiming the opening set and reaching 4-0 in the second.

A break by his opponent for 4-1 only delayed the inevitable, with Nadal getting the break straight back for 5-1 before taking the win on a first match point a game later.

Nadal will now line up against Andreas Seppi after the Italian defeated Pablo Andujar 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-4.

Australian Open champion and third seed Stanislas Wawrinka was taking on Croatian Marin Cilic.Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic duplicated his best showing in the principality with a 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 6-1 defeat of Taiwan´s Yen Lu-Hsun.

Italian tenth seed Fabio Fognini beat Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 7-6 (8/6), 6-4. (AFP)