2, 3-6, 6-3 in the final match of the US Clay Court Championship Sunday. Isner would've moved up to No. 8 in the rankings with a victory, but the Argentine broke Isner's serve three times to hand the American his first clay loss of the year. Monaco won on clay for the second time this year and improved to 11-2 on the surface this year overall. He came in ranked 16th and his first victory in America will move up him to No. 13, a career high. Isner won 44 consecutive service games in the tournament before Monaco broke him twice in the first set to take control. Isner had eight aces in the match, but also had five double faults. Andujar beats Ramos In Morocco, Pablo Andujar retained his Grand Prix Hassan II title by beating Albert Ramos 6-1, 7-6 (5) in a rain-delayed all-Spanish final Sunday. The third-seeded Andujar clinched his second career title against the seventh-seeded Ramos, who was playing his first final. The players went off early in the second set after a downpour, but there was little reprieve for Ramos when they resumed. Andujar converted all of his four breakpoint chances and he has yet to drop a set in his three career wins against his fellow countryman. Verdasco, Melzer win Seeded players Fernando Verdasco of Spain and Jurgen Melzer of Austria both advanced to the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters Monday. The 13th-seeded Verdasco, a finalist here in 2010, dropped serve twice in the first set, but then did not face another break point as he rallied to beat Belgium's Olivier Rochus 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. He next plays Croatia's Ivan Dodig. The 15th-seeded Melzer had an easier match, breaking Polish player Lukasz Kubot's serve five times en route to a 6-2, 7-5 win. He faces Marcel Granollers of Spain or Frenchman Julien Benneteau. Paul-Henri Mathieu of France took a little over one hour to thrash Donald Young 6-0, 6-1. Mathieu next plays No. 12 Kei Nishikori of Japan or Spaniard Albert Ramos, runner-up Sunday at the Grand Prix Hassan II tournament. In other first-round play, there were straight-sets wins for Australia's Bernard Tomic, Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, and Finland's Jarkko Nieminen. The 19-year-old Tomic was happy with how he mixed sliced forehands with heavy groundstrokes in his 6-4, 6-3 win against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan. with my game even on clay.” Kohlschreiber won 6-4, 6-4 against Frenchman Guillaume Rufin, while Nieminen beat fellow veteran Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6 (3) to earn a second-round match against seven-time defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain.
