Nalbandian beats Starace, passes to second round

David Nalbandian defeated Italian Potito Starace 6-4, 6-4 during the first round of the Buenos Aires ATP held at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis.

The number 19 of the world ranking passed to the next round, where he will face his fellow countryman, Juan Pablo Brzezicki, who comfortably defeated Filippo Volandri.

Earlier, Juan Mónaco beat Spanish Iván Navarro, Horacio Zeballos defeated Pablo Andújar and Eduardo Schwank, Igor Andreev, leading to a victorious day for the Argentines in the competition.

Nevertheless, Pablo Galdón and Carlos Berlocq were not able to defeat their rivals and were crushed by Nicolás Almagro and Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, respectively.

During the rest of the day, Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas won 5-7, 7-5 and 6-3 over Lukas Kubot; Albert Ramos Vinolas crushed Brazilian Paulo Souza (6-4, 6-0) and the Romanian Victor Hanescu defeated Spanish Daniel Gimeno Traver 6-3 and 7-6(2).