Agassi, Nalbandian Survive Tests at ATP Madrid

No. 2 seed Andre Agassi (d. (Q) Max "The Beast" Mirnyi) and No. 4 David Nalbandian (d. Soderling) both survived first set tiebreaks before advancing in straight sets, and (9) Andrei Pavel (d. Fish) navigated a third-set breaker.

"It was definitely a difficult match," said Agassi, who set up a third round meeting with either countryman Vince "Vincenzo" Spadea or Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal. "It was tough to get a rhythm. I got fortunate on some points."

The event's first upset victim was No. 12 seed Juan Ignacio Chela, outed in straight sets by unseeded Frenchman Anthony Dupuis.

Other unseeded players into the second round were Spaniards Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco (d. Bjorkman) and The Prodigy (d. Sanguinetti), German Tommy Haas (d. practice partner Xavier "X-Man" Malisse), American Taylor Dent (d. Youzhny), Croat Ivan Ljubicic (d. Berdych), Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez (d. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic 7-6 in the third), and the hot-handed Argentine Guillermo Canas (d. Vliegen 6-1 in the third).

Doubles winners were (1)Knowles/Nestor (d. Knowle/Zimonjic in three), (2)Bryan/Bryan (d. (WC)Ram/Safin), and unseeded Hrbaty/Schuettler (d. (WC)Nadal/Robredo 6-4, 4-1, ret., with Nadal suffering a shoulder injury).

Scheduled for Wednesday in Madrid are (WC) Corretja vs. (16) Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan (Corretja leads career meetings 3-0), (1) Henman vs. Costa (Henman leads 6-3), F-Lo vs. (3) Safin, (6) Ferrero vs. Luis "Me So" Horna, (14) Spadea vs. The Prodigy (will Nadal pull with the bad shoulder?), Dent vs. (5) Massu, Ljubicic vs. (13) Schuettler (German leads 5-2), (11) Novak vs. Haas (tied 2-2), Canas vs. (7) Joachim "Pim-Pim" Johansson (first meeting), Hot Sauce vs. (10) The Dominator (first meeting), (8) Tommy "The R." Robredo vs. Robby "Baby Courier" Ginepri (first meeting), and (15) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez vs. (Q) Stefan "Poor Man's Tommy Muster" Koubek.

In doubles highlights it's gold medal (and unseeded) Chileans Gonzalez/Massu vs. Argentines Etlis/Rodriguez, (3)Bhupathi/Mirnyi vs. Paes/Rikl in an Indian grudge match, and Aussies Arthurs/Hanley vs. Canas/Haas.