Gasquet, Raonic advance at Monte Carlo

Associated Press

Richard Gasquet converted all six of his break points as he beat Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 6-0 on Monday, and Milos Raonic had 13 aces in a 6-3, 7-5 win against wild card Marco Cecchinato in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters.

Raonic broke in the 11th game of the second set and quickly moved 40-0 up as he served for the match. Cecchinato saved two match points before the Italian sent a high backhand wide on the next point.

“I let myself fall into a little bit too much of a defensive pattern where I was playing a little too far back,” Raonic said. “It didn’t allow me to use my game to dictate. I was a little bit more reactive rather than proactive.”

The 10th-seeded Canadian will play either Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver or Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas in the second round.

The ninth-seeded Gasquet next faces fellow Frenchman Lucas Pouille.

No. 12 Dominic Thiem of Austria overcame a difficult first set, where he dropped his serve twice, to beat qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Gael Monfils, a semifinalist last year and seeded 13th, also advanced, beating Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-5, 6-0.

No. 16 Benoit Paire of France rallied to beat Spaniard Inigo Cervantes 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6). Roberto Bautista Agut defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 7-6 (4) in an all-Spanish match, and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov beat qualifier Filip Krajinovic 6-3, 6-2.

British player Aljaz Bedene had eight aces in a 6-2, 6-3 win against Czech Lukas Rosol and next faces fifth-seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain, who won the last of his eight straight titles here in 2012.

Alexander Zverev eased past Russian Andrey Rublev 6-1, 6-3 in a match of two 18-year-olds and next plays No. 7 David Ferrer, the 2011 runner-up.

There were also wins for Spaniards Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Pablo Carreno Busta and Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

No. 2 Andy Murray and No. 3 Roger Federer are in second-round action today. Murray faces Herbert and Federer, who is returning from more than two months out following surgery on his left knee, takes on Garcia-Lopez.

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic begins his title defense Wednesday against either Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili or Czech Jiri Vesely, who play today.