Almagro Downs Seed, Coria Next at Barcelona

Almagro began the year at No. 88 on the ATP Rankings, but this week entered Barcelona at No. 57 after capturing his career-first title a couple weeks back on the clay at Valencia.

On Tuesday in Barcelona, Almagro advanced into the third round with a 6-2, 6-4 win over No. 13 seed Gael Monfils, to his delight setting up a meeting with No. 3 seed Guillermo Coria. The Argentine former Roland Garros runner-up has struggled this year with his surgically-repaired shoulder and his in-need-of-repair confidence.

Coria survived a scare Tuesday, coming from a set down to defeat Spanish wildcard Galo Blanco 6-7(4), 6-0, 6-2.

Other seeded winners on the day were (5) David Ferrer (d. Murray from a set down 6-1 in the third), (9) Tomas Berdych (d. Montanes from a set down), and (12) Fernando Verdasco (d. Vik).

"This is my best performance on clay ever by a long way," Murray told reporters. "This shows that I'm not a bad clay player. Ferrer's a Top 5 on the clay behind (Rafael) Nadal, (Roger) Federer and some other guys."

Wednesday's highlights on the Barcelona dirt include (10) Ferrero vs. A.Martin in an all-Spanish meeting, the retiring (WC) Al Costa vs. (8) Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, (1) Nadal vs. Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez in another all-ESP, Calleri vs. (12) Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco, (9) Berdych vs. Al "The Dropshot Dragon" Portas, "Dr." Ivo Karlovic vs. (2) Davydenko, (6) Robredo vs. "You Say" Potito Starace, Volandri vs. (4) Stepanek, Kohlschreiber vs. (7) Nieminen, and the oddball doubles pairing of Justin "The Gimel-blogger" Gimelstob/Andy Murray vs. Frenchmen Paul-Henri "The Gagger Counter" Mathieu/Gael "Force" Monfils.