seeded Richard Gasquet of France rallied past Juan Ignacio Chela and Nicolas Almagro overcame a stubborn challenge from fellow Spanish player Pablo Andujar to reach the second round of the Barcelona Open Tuesday. Despite an inconsistent serve, Gasquet won a back-and-forth match 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 after breaking his Argentine opponent three times in the deciding set. Eighth-seeded Almagro's 7-5, 7-6 (1) victory puts him one win shy of breaking into the top 10 in the rankings for the first time. “When you're on the court you try not to think about that,” said Almagro, who is just six points behind current No. 10 Mardy Fish after matching his result here from last year. “I still think I can play much better.” Andujar broke Almagro's first two service games to get out 3-0 before Almagro broke back three times in the set, which he secured when Andujar netted a forehand. Andujar saved four match points before eventually succumbing to Almagro, who let out a loud cry of relief at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona. Earlier, fourth-ranked Andy Murray and fellow top-10 player Tomas Berdych were both forced to pull out of the event. Murray was bothered by the same elbow injury that flared up during his Monte-Carlo Masters semifinal loss to Nadal Saturday. Berdych exited because of a stomach virus. Former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Xavier Malisse of Belgium 6-4, 6-2 in his first match since the US Open. Other first-round winners included Daniel Gimeno-Traver, Ivan Dodig, Simon Greul, Carlos Berlocq and Kei Nishikori of Japan. Rezai, Safina advance In Morocco, top-seeded Aravane Rezai of France rallied to beat Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the the Grand Prix Sar Tuesday. Rezai dropped serve three times in the first set, but broke on three occasions in the second to level the match. The Frenchwoman saved four break points in the decider to close out the match after 2 hours, 33 minutes. Rezai will next play Nadia Lalami of Morocco. Former No. 1 Dinara Safina eased into the second round with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Jill Craybas of the United States. Safina struggled with her first serve, landing only 38 percent, but converted five of her seven break points to seal victory in 51 minutes. Safina will next play either eighth-seeded Alize Cornet of France or Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic. Cornet was leading 6-3, 5-3 when their match was suspended by darkness. Other first-round winners at the clay-court tournament included Lalami, Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, Anastasia Pivovareva of Russia, Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium and Alberta Brianti of Italy.
