Monte Carlo Masters: Rohan Bopanna, Pablo Cuevas move into 2nd round with hard-fought win

Monaco: Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas recorded their first win together at the Masters level when they downed Marcin Matkowski and Alexander Peya in the opening round of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. [caption id=“attachment_3393832” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Pablo Cuevas (L) and Rohan Bopanna. AFP[/caption] The unseeded India-Uruguay pair fought past their rivals 6-3, 6-7(7), 10-2 in an hour and 27 minutes. They had played in two Masters series events before this - Indian Wells and Miami - and lost in the first rounds in both. Bopanna and Cuevas next face fifth seeds Raven Klaasen from South African and American Rajeev Ram who got a bye in the first round. Bopanna has made two finals this season - winning the season-opener Chennai Open with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and ending runner-up with Matkowski at Dubai Championships. In the men’s singles, Andy Murray returned from over a month out with an elbow injury to launch his clay-court season with a gruelling 7-5, 7-5 defeat of Gilles Muller. The world number one and top seed waited until late in both sets to make his move, finally putting Muller away in just under two hours to reach the third round.