Soderling Upsets Davydenko At Monte Carlo Masters

MONTE CARLO, Monaco (AP) _ Robin Soderling upset third-seeded Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3 Wednesday in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters. <br/><br/>The Swede, who needed five match points,

Wednesday, April 18th 2007, 9:30 am

By: News On 6

MONTE CARLO, Monaco (AP) _ Robin Soderling upset third-seeded Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3 Wednesday in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters.

The Swede, who needed five match points, failed to convert his first match point when leading 5-4 in the second set. Soderling had another in the tiebreaker.

In the third set, Davydenko saved two more match points. But Soderling won on his fifth chance when Davydenko's backhand was long.

Soderling will play either Max Mirnyi and or qualifier Sergio Roitman in the third round.

Sixth-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat 2004 French Open champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.

``I felt pretty comfortable on the court,'' said Djokovic, who won the Miami Masters earlier this month. ``I felt like everything depended on me. The third set was more or less pretty easy after the second or third game.''

Juan Carlos Ferrero, Tommy Robredo and Tomas Berdych all advanced without dropping a set.

The fifth-seeded Robredo beat Arnaud Clement of France 6-3, 6-2, Berdych ousted Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-1, 6-2, and Ferrero downed Nicolas Massu of Chile 6-2, 6-0.

Later Wednesday, second-ranked Rafael Nadal of Spain looked to extend his winning streak on clay to 63 matches when he faced Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina.

Nadal, a two-time defending Monte Carlo champion, has not lost on clay since Igor Andreev of Russia beat him in April 2005 in the quarterfinals of the Valencia Open.