Madrid, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) - Last year's French Open runner-up David Ferrer was a hard-fought second-round winner Tuesday at the $5 million Madrid Open, an ATP Masters 1000 event.
The fifth-seeded Spanish favorite outlasted compatriot Albert Ramos 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 6-3 on the red clay at the Magic Box.
Ferrer enjoyed an opening-round bye at this French Open tune-up.
In first-round action involving seeds on Day 3, Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov upended 13th-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 and Dutch qualifier Igor Sijsling upset 14th-seeded German Tommy Haas 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
A fatigued Fognini was last week's runner-up in Munich.
"Fabio always plays well on clay. So it was a tough match and I'm happy to be through," said Dolgopolov.
Also in round one, Spaniard Nicolas Almagro needed 11 match points before finally outlasting Kazakhstani qualifier Andrey Golubev 6-3, 6-7 (9-11), 7-6 (7-4) in 2 hours, 31 minutes; South African Kevin Anderson overcame Czech veteran Radek Stepanek 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Latvian Ernests Gulbis got past menacing Pole Jerzy Janowicz 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-2; Croat Marin Cilic drubbed Portuguese Joao Sousa 6-1, 6-1; and Argentine Juan Monaco erased Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 6-3.
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