Spain's Rafael Nadal kicked his clay-court season into gear as he won his 37th straight match on the surface here on Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-4, defeat of Arnaud Clement at the Monte Carlo Open.
The first-round victory puts the holder on track as he bids for a title repeat. He now stands 9-1 at the venue.
He last lost on clay to Igor Andreev in last year's Valencia quarter-finals.
With Roger Federer dominating the top seeding, teenaged Nadal, who will also defend the Roland Garros title next month, would like nothing better than to repeat as champion in the principality.
A year ago, he lifted the first Masters Series shield of his career here as he beat three-time finalist Guillermo Coria.
Getting past Clement was a relief after the Frenchman handed Nadal one of his three losses this year at the semi-finals at Marseille in February.
Nadal started his season at that event after a foot injury suffered in 2005. The Spaniard was playing for the first time since losing to Mallorca mentor Carlos Moya in an opening match in Miami last month. Paul-Henri Mathieu defeated former world number one Marat Safin 6-0, 7-5 to set up a second-round match with sixth seed Coria, who beat Mikhail Youzhny (6-3, 6-1. Mathieu, ranked 39th and playing his first event this season on clay, stunned Safin in the first set and held on as the unseeded Russian began a brief fightback in the second.
The Frenchman won the first eight games of the match before the 26-year-old Safin, a semi-finalist last week in Valencia as he makes a comeback from a longstanding knee injury, began to challenge. The Russian finally got started as he broke for 1-2 in the second, but promptly lost serve again. The breaks continued with one more for Safin in the fifth before levelling for 3-all.
RESULTS:
FIRST ROUND: Robin Soderling (SWE) bt Nikolay Davydenko (RUS x5) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4; Guillermo Coria (ARG x6) bt Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) 6-3, 6-1; Tomas Berdych (CZE x16) bt Fabrice Santoro (FRA) 6-2, 6-4; Potito Starace (ITA) bt Nicolas Mahut (FRA) 7-6 (7/2), 6-2; Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) bt Marat Safin (RUS) 6-0, 7-5; Gilles Simon (FRA) bt Teimuraz Gabashvili (RUS) 6-4, 6-2; Rafael Nadal (ESP x2) bt Arnaud Clément (FRA) 6-4, 6-4; Feliciano Lopez (ESP) bt Victor Hanescu (ROM) 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/2); Benjamin Balleret (MON) bat Christophe Rochus (BEL) 6-3, 6-3.
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