• Tennis

Murray faces Granollers test

ESPN staff
May 13, 2013
Andy Murray will face Marcel Granollers in Rome © AP
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British No. 1 Andy Murray will face Marcel Granollers in the second round of the ATP Rome Masters after the Spaniard defeated Nikolay Davydenko.

Murray, who considers clay his least favourite surface, is hoping for an improvement on last week's quarter-final finish at the Madrid Open where he was knocked out by Czech Tomas Berdych.

The Scot moved back up to world No 2 in the rankings and will take on Granollers, ranked 37th, who saw off veteran Russian Davydenko 6-3 6-4 in the last major warm-up event ahead of the French Open in two weeks.

In today's other matches, Grigor Dimitrov cruised into the second round, defeating Marcos Baghdatis by the same scoreline, and will faceninth seed Richard Gasquet after the Frenchman overcame Sam Querrey 6-2 7-6 (10-8).

Elsewhere, Denis Istomin came from a set down to upset world No. 20 John Isner 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 and will next face sixth-seed Berdych, while wild card Matteo Viola was beaten 6-4 6-3 by Alexandr Dolgopolov and South Africa's Kevin Anderson proved too powerful for Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-1 6-2 to set up a meeting with Marin Cilic, who defeated Andrey Golubev.

But the biggest upset of the first round was caused by Italian Potito Starace, the world No. 305 recovered from a set down to beat 48th-ranked 4-6 6-4 6-3.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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