Barcelona, Spain - Five-time champion Rafael Nadal and fellow Spanish crowd favorite David Ferrer were easy winners, while last year's runner-up Robin Soderling came up a second-round loser Wednesday at the $2.24 million Barcelona Open.
The world No. 1 Nadal whipped compatriot Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-1, 6-1, while a fourth-seeded Ferrer, the 2008 and 2009 Barcelona runner-up, pasted Argentine Carlos Berlocq 6-2, 6-2 on the red clay at Real Club de Tenis Barcelona. Nadal beat Ferrer in last week's all-Spanish finale at the Monte Carlo Masters, where Nadal is the reigning seven-time champion.
The reigning U.S. Open, Wimbledon and French Open champ Nadal captured this Barcelona event five straight years from 2005-09.
Up next for Nadal will be Colombian Santiago Giraldo, while Ferrer will face Romanian Victor Hanescu in the third round.
A third-seeded Soderling succumbed to Croat Ivan Dodig 6-2, 6-4 on Day 3. The Swedish slugger, who is the two-time reigning Roland Garros runner-up, lost to Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in last year's Barcelona title tilt.
Sixth-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer mauled Spain's Marcel Granollers 6-1, 6-3, while ninth-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet held off Slovenian Blaz Kavcic 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
Three more upsets came when Feliciano Lopez took out 12th-seeded fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-4, Hanescu humbled 14th- seeded South African Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4, and Italian qualifier Simone Vagnozzi vaulted past 16th-seeded Argentine Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-2.
Eleventh-seeded Spaniard Albert Montanes reached the round of 16 with a 6-7 (3-7), 6-1, 6-4 victory over France's Benoit Paire, while surging 15th-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic edged out German qualifier Simon Greul 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5).
In action involving former top-five stars, Juan Carlos Ferrero bested German lucky-loser Mischa Zverev 6-4, 7-5 and Russian Nikolay Davydenko topped Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-2, 7-6 (13-11). The former world No. 1 Ferrero, seeing his first action since the U.S. Open, was the Barcelona champion in 2001 and runner-up in 2000 and 2005.
Additional second-round wins came for the aforementioned Giraldo and Japan's Kei Nishikori.
This week's winner will earn $418,000.
