seeded Novak Djokovic and No. 4 Andy Murray both won in straight sets Tuesday to reach the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters. Djokovic was rarely troubled in beating Oscar Hernandez of Spain 6-1, 6-2, while Murray began slowly before defeating Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-3, 6-2 to stay on course for a first career quarterfinal match on clay. Djokovic, who reached the French Open semifinals last year, next faces either Jean-Rene Lisnard or Albert Montanes. The Serb said he was surprised at how well he played in his first clay-court match of the season. Murray twice dropped serve early to trail 2-1 in the opening set, but the British player took the next four games for a commanding lead. Murray, who lost to Roger Federer in the US Open final last year, next takes on either 14th-seeded Marin Cilic or Fabio Fognini of Italy. If he wins that, he will reach a clay-court quarterfinal match for the first time in his career. Also in the second round, sixth-seeded Gilles Simon lost to Andreas Beck of Germany 7-5, 6-1. Simon, who twice beat Federer last year, said the loss to a qualifier was the worst he could recall. Marat Safin of Russia beat Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 7-5 in a match between two-time Grand Slam champions. Safin next plays Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador. In the first round, 10th-seeded David Ferrer beat Feliciano Lopez 6-2, 6-3 in an all-Spanish match; No. 12 David Nalbandian of Argentina beat Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; and Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia upset ninth-seeded Gael Monfils of France 6-3, 6-1. Zvonareva, Petrova, advance Vera Zvonareva began her bid to reach a second straight Family Circle Cup final by beating Rossana de los Rios of Paraguay 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday. Joining third-seeded Zvonareva in the third round were No. 4 and 2006 champion Nadia Petrova, No. 6 Marion Bartoli, who has never gone any further, and No. 7 Dominika Cibulkova, for the first time. Zvonareva improved her record this year to 20-3 but made a sloppy start to her clay season by dropping serve four times. In other second-round matches, Petrova overcame a mid-match stumble to beat Patricia Mayr of Austria 6-1, 2-6, 6-2, Bartoli defeated Latvian qualifier Anastasija Sevastova 6-1, 6-3, and Cibulkova downed Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-4, 6-0. Ninth-seeded Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada, the runner-up at Ponte Vedra Beach on Sunday, won her opener when she rallied past Abigail Spears of the United States 6-3, 4-6, 6-0. Sania Mirza of India ended a three-match losing streak in beating Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-4, and bought a second-round match with 2004 champion Venus Williams. Russian Alla Kudryavtseva's second win of the year, at the expense of American qualifier Angela Haynes 6-4, 5-7, 6-0, put her into a matchup with fifth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki. Also through were Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States and Sabine Lisicki of Germany. Meanwhile, basketball great Julius Erving watched his daughter Alexandra Stevenson play tennis for the first time, in a 6-2, 6-4 loss to Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan. Erving watched from the porch of the players' clubhouse and did not speak to reporters. Asked if it was the first time he had seen her play, Stevenson said, “Yes, that is true. And I actually didn't see him until the second set.” It's been a decade since the 28-year-old Stevenson learned that Dr. J was her father, about the time she made the Wimbledon semifinals. “We were never in a bad place, I just didn't know him,” 191st-ranked Stevenson said. “So it's good now. I mean, obviously, it's still odd because you're getting to know somebody. But it's nice that I know him, and he's supporting me out here, coming to watch me play.”
