Safin v Ferrero Today at ATP Monte Carlo

"The first game he play good, the first two games. He have chance," Nadal said of the X-Man. "He have breakpoint in the first games, in the second game 30-All. He playing good. But when I put 2-0, he's little bit relax. I think he sees a difficult match and he knows it's tough for him, no?"

No. 10 Nikolay Davydenko (d. Costa) was the other seeded winner, with four seeds falling by the wayside Wednesday in (9) Guillermo Canas (l. to Volandri in three), (13) Mario Ancic (l. to Gonzalez), (15) Radek Stepanek (l. to (Q) Hanescu 6-0 in the third), and (16) Jiri Novak (l. to (WC) Ferrero in three).

"I'm trying since the beginning of the year to playing well, but I suppose you know I meet with a lot of good guys in first and second rounds, like Top 10 players," said Ferrero, who next faces Safin. "Always it's difficult to play against them. Before this, you know, I always play against these guys quarterfinals, semifinals. Now in the first and second rounds are always very difficult."

Unseeded winners on the day were French qualifier Richard Gasquet (d (Q) Mantilla), Belgian Olivier Rochus (d. Berdych in three), Spaniards Al Martin (d. (WC) Lisnard) and Dave Ferrer (d. (Q) Seppi), and Argentines Mariano Zabaleta (d. Santoro from a set down) and Mariano Puerta (d. Mayer, dropping only two games).

Upsets on the doubles side were performed by cash-money Czechs Damm/Stepanek (d. (2) Bjorkman/Mirnyi), Croats Ancic/Ljubicic (d. (7) Suk/Vizner), and Bhupathi/Gonzalez (d. (8) Aspelin/Perry).

On court Thursday are Puerta vs. Volandri, (10) Davydenko vs. (Q) Gasquet, (1) Federer vs. Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez, (WC) Ferrero vs. (2) Safin in a battle of former No. 1s, (11) Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal vs. Olivier "The Roach" Rochus, (6) Guillermo "El Fragile" Coria vs. A.Martin, (4) Gaudio vs. (Q) Hanescu, and Ferrer vs. Zabaleta.

Vaidisova Extends Myskina Misery at WTA Charleston

15-year-old Nicole Vaidisova extended the miserable year of No. 3 seed Anastasia Myskina Wednesday at the WTA stop in Charleston, recording her first career Top 10 win with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 grinding victory over the reigning French Open champion.

"I guess it's not my year right now," said Myskina, who has an 8-8 win-loss record in 2005. "I mean, I practice pretty hard. I try. I do my best on court, that's for sure. I'm not just tank the matches. Sometimes I guess it's just not my days."

Vaidisova was already set to celebrate as the Top 50-ranked Czech will turn 16 in 10 days.

"I'm excited about today," Vaidisova said. "It's a good win for me. It gives me confidence."

Seeded winners Wednesday were (1) Lindsay Davenport (d. (Q) Pelletier), (4) Venus Williams (d. Chladkova), (8) Patty Schnyder (d. Marrero), (11) Ai Sugiyama (d. Groenefeld), (13) Tatiana Golovin (d. Raymond), and (14) Shinobu Asagoe who received a walkover from Meghann Shaughnessy due to a lower back injury.

"After coming off a long week last week, it's nice to just have kind of a quicker match," Davenport said. "We didn't have many rallies, the points were very short and just a couple balls each way, but I've played so much tennis that I feel good and happy to be through, and like the court quite a bit."

Venus was down 1-4 in the first before finding her game to win in straights.

"It was just so weird for me out there today," Venus said. "I just couldn't seem to do anything right and I couldn't keep my balls in."

Two other seeds went down in flames in the second round, with (15) Mary Pierce straight-setted by Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives, and (16) Fabiola Zuluaga ousted by Ukraine qualifier Viktoriya Kutuzova, managing only four games.

Former No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne led the un-seeds into the third round with a gritty three-set win over China's Shuai Peng, joined by Czech Klara Koukalova (d. Stosur), Slovak Katarina Srebotnik (d. (LL) Perebiynis in three), and Croat Jelena Kostanic (d. Strycova).

"I need to play a lot of matches and I need to be on the court," Henin-Hardenne said. "Mentally I've been strong in the third set."

On Thursday's schedule are Patty "Handshake" Schnyder vs. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova, Venus vs. Tatiana "Hot Pants" Golovin, Henin-Hardenne vs. Benesova, Nuria Llagostera "Pancho" Vives vs. Dementieva, Davenport vs. Kutuzova, Kostanic vs. Petrova, Asagoe vs. Vaidisova, and Srebotnik vs. Sugiyama.

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