• Madrid Masters

Del Potro hobbles on, Simon secures Murray rematch

Juan Martin del Potro has enjoyed an impressive start to the clay season © Getty Images

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Madrid seedings

Juan Martin del Potro overcame an injury scare to book his place in the second round of the Madrid Masters with a 6-1 3-6 6-3 victory over Mikhail Youzhny.

The former US Open champion, whose victory at the Estoril Open last week saw him climb to 32 in the world rankings, is unseeded in the Spanish capital, but looks set to return to the top ten in the near future after proving too strong for the 13th seed.

Del Potro stormed out of the blocks, racing to a 3-0 lead and Youzhny narrowly avoided a whitewash as the Argentine dominated the opening set. However, a groin injury stalled his progress, and after lengthy treatment he returned to court, but was clearly hindered as Youzhny forced the match to a third set.

Del Potro tried to dictate the rallies from the back of the court in a bid to protect his leg, and he soon found a breakthrough as a smearing forehand out wide forced three break points, and when Youzhny was unable to deal with a deep probing forehand down the line, Del Potro once more took control of the match, breaking to love.

Youzhny saved three break points to save a second consecutive break, but the damage was already done as Del Potro motored through the remaining games to set up a second-round meeting with Marin Cilic - with a mouth-watering third-round clash against world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in prospect.

Meanwhile, Gilles Simon set up a rematch with British No. 1 Andy Murray after a hard-fought 7-5 7-6(8) win over Ivan Ljubicic. Murray beat Simon 6-3 6-3 en route to a semi-final appearance in Monte Carlo last month, and the Scot will hope to replicate that form after recovering from an elbow injury.

Home favourite Fernando Verdasco was toppled at the first hurdle, with Yen-Hsun Lu claiming a hard-fought 7-6(7) 7-5 win, while Florian Mayer beat Viktor Troicki in three sets.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was the first man to progress to the third round, but needed three hours and 20 minutes to find a way past Spanish qualifier Pere Riba 6-4 6-2. He was joined in the third round by Sergiy Stakhovsky who overcame John Isner.

Juan Monaco eased into the third round, with No. 9 sseed Gael Monfils retiring when 6-2 3-0 down.

David Ferrer was another player to progress to round three, but he had a survive a scare before beating Adrian Mannarino 7-5 0-6 6-0.

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