Spanish favorite Fernando Verdasco reached the second round, while third-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga came up a loser Wednesday at the $2.98 million Valencia Open.

The fourth-seeded Verdasco was leading wild card and fellow Spaniard Oscar Hernandez 6-1, 0-1 when Hernandez retired with a lower back injury.

Up next for the 2004 Valencia titlist Verdasco will be dangerous Serb Janko Tipsarevic.

Tsonga, meanwhile, was trailing Russian Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (7-3), 0-6, 0-3 when the flashy Frenchman retired with a left wrist injury on the indoor hardcourts here.

Fifth-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon reached the quarterfinals by holding off Czech Tomas Berdych 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, while sixth-seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils went by way of a second-round upset Wednesday, falling to Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 7-5.

In some other opening-round play on Day 3, the aforementioned Tipsarevic handled struggling Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-4, 6-3 and Feliciano Lopez doused qualifier and fellow Spaniard Alberto Martin 7-5, 6-3. Martin captured this title eight years ago.

On Thursday, top-seeded Brit Andy Murray will meet Argentine Leonardo Mayer, while second-seeded Russian star Nikolay Davydenko will encounter Argentine Juan Monaco and eighth-seeded and defending Valencia champion David Ferrer will battle fellow Spaniard Albert Montanes. Ferrer defeated Nicolas Almagro in last year's popular all-Spanish finale here.

The 2009 Valencia winner will take home $475,000.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@