Wins from Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer sent a trio of seeds into the third round of the Cincinnati Masters on Wednesday in comfortable style.
Top-seed Nadal benefited from 40 unforced errors off the racket of American Taylor Dent in a 6-2, 7-5 second round defeat. Second seed Djokovic eliminated fellow Serb Viktor Troicki 6-3, 7-5 Spaniard Ferrer, the number 10, denied the hopes of Los Angeles champion Sam Querrey in a 7-5, 6-2 defeat.
Nadal won without an ace against Dent, who missed two years of tennis due to back surgery and recovery.
The Spaniard has won 35 of his past 37 matches since the second week of April. “Playing Taylor is always a great challenge,” said the winner. “I’m very happy to be in the third round. It’s true I have never gone past the semis but I hope to play my best tennis and improve that.”
Djokovic has now won four of five meetings against Troicki, with the second seed standing 37-11 this season as the US Open draws near.
Djokovic said he overcame a lapse in the second set on his way to the win.
“I did have a decrease of the level, it was a very ugly set with a lot of unforced errors on both sides, a lot of double faults.
“It turned around in this second game when I lost my serve, I felt uncomfortable after that. I was struggling to hit the ball really well. But I recovered, it was good to go through in straight sets.”
