Roger Federer made a flawless comeback after two-and-a-half months away, as the Swiss advanced over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4 Tuesday to power into the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters. The Swiss third seed showed no signs of a layoff after undergoing a knee operation on Feb. 3 and delaying his comeback by three weeks due to a stomach illness last month before Miami. Federer has never won the Monte Carlo title, losing in four finals, most recently in 2014 to compatriot Stan Wawrinka, the reigning French Open champion. "I'm glad to be back among the best players in the world," Federer said after his 75-minute win. "It was a tough recovery but you must take it day by day, setting goals and achieving them." Federer was broken while serving for the win leading 5-2 in the second set, but he got the job done on the second time of asking with a winner. It was a struggle for No. 2 Andy Murray, who needed to call upon all of his resources to survive his opening match of the season on clay. The Scot scratched out a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert. Murray needed two hours to book his place in the third round after losing serve four times against Herbert. He has yet to regain his top form two months after becoming a father. "I've definitely been a little bit flat since the Davis Cup (last November). I don't know why. In a lot of my matches, it's been some good stuff mixed in with some pretty bad stuff." The 28-year-old has a massive set of clay-court ranking points to defend after last year winning his first two titles on the surface at Munich and Madrid. Murray improved his tournament record to 12-7 with the victory. Federer, playing here for a 13th time, won his fourth match over Garcia-Lopez without the loss of a set as they met for the first time on clay. Federer won his 29th Monte Carlo match against a dozen losses. Spain's injured seventh seed David Ferrer withdrew a day prior to his second-round match against German teenager Alexander Zverev. He was replaced by compatriot Marcel Granollers. Ferrer, a finalist in the Principality five years ago against Rafael Nadal, has had a patchy 2016 season, taking a break from late February to late March to rest. Upon his return, the ATP No. 8 lost in the Miami third round to France's Lucas Pouille. Frenchman Gilles Simon also earned a second-round win, beating Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-3, while French eighth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Pablo Carreno Busta 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-5). In the first round, Belgian 11th seed David Goffin dispatched Feliciano Lopez 7-5, 6-0, while Portugal's Joao Sousa beat Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), Bosnian Damir Dzumhur put out Robin Haase 6-2, 6-0 and Pablo Cuevas needed three hours 20 minutes to defeat Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-4). Sharapova in Olympic plans Russia says Maria Sharapova is still in its plans for the Olympic tennis tournament in August despite her provisional suspension for failing a drug test. Sharapova has been suspended since last month, when she admitted she tested positive for the banned substance meldonium at January's Australian Open. Sharapova said she had been taking meldonium for medical reasons for 10 years and had not seen a World Anti-Doping Agency ruling last year that it would be banned for 2016. Russian Tennis Federation President Shamil Tarpishchev says in a statement "we really hope that Sharapova will still be allowed to take part in the Olympic Games." No date has been announced by the International Tennis Federation for a hearing into the case of Sharapova, who won Olympic silver in 2012.
