Montanes Opens 2010 Clay Campaign

© Brasil OpenAlbert Montanes improves to a 4-6 record in Costa do Sauipe.

Second seed Albert Montanes of Spain began his 2010 clay-court campaign by defeating German Simon Greul 6-2, 7-6(2) on Monday at the Brasil Open, an ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Costa do Sauipe.

World No. 30 Montanes did not face any break points on serve and capitalised on his two break point opportunities to defeat the German for the second time in two meetings.

The 29 year old is making his seventh appearance at the Brazilian tournament, and will look to advance beyond the second round for the first time when he next faces the winner between Lukasz Kubot and Oscar Hernandez. Montanes won two clay-court titles in 2009, at the Estoril Open and the BCR Open Romania in Bucharest.

In an all-Spanish first-round meeting, Daniel Gimeno-Traver earned his first tour-level win of the 2010 season after getting by Santiago Ventura 7-6(7), 6-1 in one hour and 33 minutes. The World No. 81 had gone 0-3 in the month of January, with opening losses in Doha, Sydney and the Australian Open.

Gimeno-Traver will face a Brazilian – either No. 3 seed Thomaz Bellucci or wild card Thiago Alves – in his second-round match. Bellucci, last year’s finalist, is coming off the title win at the Movistar Open in Santiago.

Wild card Ricardo Mello got the Brazilian contingent off to a solid start Monday as he posted a 6-2, 7-5 win over Italian Paolo Lorenzi. The 29-year-old Mello, a former World No. 50 who entered the week at No. 135 in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings, won the clay-court Challenger tournament in Sao Paulo in the first week of the 2010 season.

Mello is playing in his home country tournament for the seventh time, but is making his first appearance since a second-round exit in 2006. He has reached the quarter-finals or better on three occasions, highlighted by a semi-final effort in 2005 (l. to Nadal).