Monfils, Almagro, Melzer Advance To Third Round

© German Tennis ChampionshipsGael Monfils joined Nicolas Almagro and Jurgen Melzer in the third round on Wednesday.

The top three seeds at the bet-at-home Open - German Tennis Championships 2011 all advanced to the third round in Hamburg on Wednesday.

Gael Monfils, who is ranked a career-high World No. 7, was rock-solid on serve when he beat Albert Ramos 6-4, 6-2 in 73 minutes. The top-seeded Frenchman won 75 per cent of his service points and saved all five break points he faced. "I think I played some great tennis," said Monfils. "I played aggressive."

Monfils goes onto meet Radek Stepanek, the 32-year-old Czech, who converted all five of his break point opportunities to defeat No.13 seed Andreas Seppi of Italy  6-1, 7-5 in 89 minutes.

Looking ahead to the clash, Monfils said, "It's always difficult to play Radek because he plays very flat, makes a lot of drop shots [and] loves to drive the ball down the line. I know I have to play a certain game. I need to focus on my return because I think he's a great server. I expect a tough match tomorrow."

Second seed Jurgen Melzer, the 2010 finalist, improved to 3-1 overall against Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 win.

Third seed Nicolas Almagro, a two-time quarter-finalist in 2007 (l. to Hewitt) and 2009 (l. to Cuevas), beat lucky loser Lukas Rosol 6-4, 6-4 in 77 minutes. World No. 14 Almagro hit seven aces to Rosol's 10 aces to improve to a 36-13 season record.

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World No. 20 Florian Mayer, the sixth seed, notched his 31st win in 49 matches this season in beating Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan 6-4, 7-6(5) in 88 minutes.

Eighth seed Fernando Verdasco, making his sixth appearance at the ATP World Tour 500 clay-court tennis tournament, knocked out fellow Spaniard and last week's MercedesCup finalist, Pablo Andujar, 6-2, 6-3 in 86 minutes. Verdasco reached the quarter-finals in 2006 (l. to Acasuso) and 2008 (l. to Federer).

World No. 168 Cedrik-Marcel Stebe overcame 11th-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 7-6(5) in one hour and 53 minutes. Davydenko won the 2009 title over Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Croatian 12th seed Marin Cilic narrowly beat World No. 187 and German qualifier Bastian Knittel 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-4 in three hours. Cilic hit 16 aces and won 66 per cent of his service points, saving 10 of 12 break points. He is now 24-13 on the season.

Twenty four hours after recording the 150th clay-court match win of his career, Argentinean Juan Monaco dropped 12 points on his serve to knock out ninth-seeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 6-2, 6-4.