Second-seeded Robin Soderling advanced to the third round of the Barcelona Open thanks to a 7-5, 7-5 win over Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina Tuesday. The Swede, the top-seeded player following the withdrawal of five-time champion Rafael Nadal, served up five aces and broke Chela on four of five opportunities to reach the last 16. Soderling was joined by Nicolas Almagro and Ivan Navarro after straight-sets victories by the Spanish players. Jurgen Melzer, Lleyton Hewitt and Feliciano Lopez also won. Ivan Navarro Pastor of Spain also advanced beating Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-2, 6-4 Italian qualifier Simone Bolelli won his first-round match after ninth-seeded Tommy Robredo retired while trailing 7-6 (7), 4-6, 1-3 due to a back injury. Tenth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina also exited following a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 defeat to Spanish qualifier Daniel Gimeno-Traver. They were the only two seeds to exit. Other first-round winners were Jeremy Chardy (who beat Spanish No. 14 Albert Montanes), Denis Istomin (who beat beat Argentine No. 10 Juan Monaco), Sergiy Stakhovsky, Victor Hanescu, Alberto Martin and Ernests Gulbis. It was a day of drama off-court as Rafael Nadal detailed his reasons for withdrawing as a precaution from one of the events which is closest to his Spanish heart and where he has won the last five editions. Nadal is skipping this week's Barcelona Open after injuries to both knees last year hampered his goal of a fifth straight title at Roland Garros and forced him out of Wimbledon. “I'm in perfect shape,” Nadal said Tuesday. “I feel very good but I don't want a repeat of what happened last year. For my tennis to be at the right level, I have to be physically well and that's my principal objective.” Clijsters-Henin in Belgium Belgian tennis players Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin will seek to assemble the biggest tennis crowd ever when they play an exhibition match at the 40,000-capacity Baudouin Stadium on July 8. If the 34,000 tickets are sold and all 6,000 invitees show up for the evening match, it will easily beat the 30,472 fans who attended the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes II” between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome. Organizer Bob Verbeeck said King would be invited as an honorary umpire. The match will mark the opening of Belgium's six-month presidency of the European Union. £1m prize money The winners of the men's and women's singles titles at this year's Wimbledon tennis tournament will each earn a record 1 million pounds ($1.54 million). The All England Club has increased the winners' prize money by 150,000 pounds ($231,348) to help offset the decrease in the value of the British pound against the dollar and euro. The increase means that the men's prize money has doubled over the past 10 years.
