Soderling Overcomes Chela In Barcelona; Almagro Coasts

© Getty ImagesRobin Soderling opens his 2010 clay campaign in Barcelona.

Second seed Robin Soderling prevented recent Houston champion Juan Ignacio Chela from serving out the second set before posting a 7-5, 7-5 victory in his opening match Tuesday at the Barcelona Open BancSabadell, a clay-court ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament.

Soderling, last year’s Roland Garros finalist, fell behind a break in both the first and second sets but recovered to claim the lead as he went four for five on his break point chances. With Chela serving to level the second-round match at one set each, Soderling fought back to make the score 5-5 and then secured the win on his first match point with another break of serve.

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The World No. 8 is making his first appearance on clay since last July, and is through to the third round in Barcelona for the first time in three event appearances.

After an 0-2 start to the season, Soderling has been in impressive form – winning the Rotterdam title, reaching the quarter-finals in Marseille and the semi-finals at the back-to-back ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami.

Spaniard Nicolas Almagro made his way confidently into the third round Tuesday, taking 65 minutes to dispatch German Simon Greul 6-1, 6-3.

Almagro was made to work against Greul last week at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, rallying for a three-sets win, but he proved to be ready for the German this time around. The 15th-seeded Spaniard lost just six points behind his serve and broke his opponent four times from eight opportunities.

World No. 34 Almagro could next face a rematch with No. 3 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whom he lost to in straight-sets in Monte-Carlo. Tsonga plays his second-round opening match against Czech Jan Hajek on Wednesday.

Lucky loser Ivan Navarro made the most of his opportunity by reaching the third round with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas. The Spaniard replaced No. 6 seed Tomas Berdych in the main draw when the Czech withdrew due to a right ankle injury.