[caption id="attachment_47087" align="alignleft" width="214"] Juan Monaco of Argentina returns a shot to Benoit Paire of France during their match at the US Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston Wednesday. — AP[/caption] HOUSTON — Argentina's Juan Monaco ousted second-seeded Benoit Paire of France 6-3, 7-5 Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the ATP clay court tournament here. Monaco, the 2012 champion in Houston, notched a second straight tour-level win for the first time since Nice 13 months ago. He saved 10 of 12 break points he faced and improved to 3-1 against Paire, the world No. 22. The 32-year-old Monaco booked a quarterfinal clash with fifth-seeded American Sam Querrey, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Germany's Benjamin Becker. Querrey belted 13 aces and saved the only two break points he faced to overcome Becker in just 50 minutes. Querrey faces a tough matchup against Monaco — he has never beaten the Argentinian in three prior meetings on clay. Top-seeded American John Isner advanced on cue, defeating American Denis Kudla 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4). Isner next faces young South Korean Chung Hyeon, who rallied for a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 victory over US wildcard Tommy Paul. Venus off to powerful start Venus Williams had not played much winning tennis since capturing her 49th WTA title in February. She was more than ready to show off her game at the Volvo Car Open in Charleston Wednesday. The third-seeded Williams used her powerhouse serves and crisp groundstrokes for a 6-4, 6-2 victory over fellow American Alison Riske. Williams advanced on a day when several other top seeds were upset at the year's first clay-court event. Williams didn't care what surface she was on, the 35-year-old simply wanted to wipe away bad memories of first-match losses at Indian Wells and Miami since winning a WTA event in Taiwan two months ago. "I just came into the tournament eager, just ready to go, especially after waiting two weeks," she said. "So it's four weeks and only two matches and you're like, argh. So I usually don't have that problem." Williams won't have such troubles in Charleston, although several high seeds already did: No. 2 Belinda Bencic, No. 4 Lucie Safarova, No. 6 Andrea Petkovic and No. 8 Madison Keys all lost their first-matches here. Bencic of Switzerland, ranked 10th in the world, was beaten by Russian qualifier Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-1. Safarova, a former finalist here, fell to American wild-card entrant Louisa Chirico, 6-3, 6-3. Germany's Petkovic, the 2014 champion here, lost to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 7-5, 6-2. Keys fell to Germany's Laura Siegemund, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4. Past champion Sabine Lisicki of Germany, seeded 15th, was also ousted. Other seeded winners along with Williams were No. 5 Sara Errani of Italy, No. 7 Sloane Stephens of the United States and 10th seeded Sam Stosur of Australia. Coric moves up Third-seeded Borna Coric advanced to the Grand Prix Hassan II quarterfinals Wednesday with a walkover after Italian opponent Simone Bolelli withdrew with a left-knee injury. The 19-year-old Croat next faces veteran Paul-Henri Mathieu after the 34-year-old Frenchman beat Maximo Gonzalez 7-6 (4), 6-0, breaking the Argentine's serve four times. Coric and Mathieu have never played each other before. Meanwhile, Argentine Facundo Bagnis also reached the last eight after upsetting second-seeded Joao Sousa 6-2, 6-4, breaking the Portuguese player's serve five times. Bagnis next faces former runner-up Albert Montanes, who advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win against fellow Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver. In remaining first-round play, No. 7 Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain had five aces in a 6-2, 6-3 win against Evgeny Donskoy of Russia. Corruption probe launched into French Federation France's financial prosecution service (PNF) has opened an investigation into allegations of corruption and embezzlement at the French Tennis Federation (FFT), a judicial source said. The case relates to possible corruption connected to the sale of tickets for the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris. The preliminary inquiry was opened on March 19, the source said. The Paris prosecutor alerted the PNF to the suspicions on March 11 and the PNF transferred the case to the judicial police's anti-corruption office. The FFT has been rocked by a number of recent controversies, including the firing of managing director Gilbert Ysern in February after weeks of disagreements with president Jean Gachassin. That move divided French tennis with top players Gilles Simon and Julien Benneteau backing the ousted Ysern. Other controversies saw Arnaud Clement evicted as Davis Cup captain to be replaced by Yannick Noah, with Clement then suing the FFT for 1.5 million euros ($1.7 million), and Guadeloupe being selected as the venue for a Davis Cup tie against Canada in March.
