No time to rest for Murray as he faces Monaco in Valencia
Published:Andy Murray will not have much time to recover from his opening round victory over Feliciano Lopez at the Valencia Open as he now prepares to make an immediate return to the court to tackle Juan Monaco.
Murray has won the two previous meetings between the two that have been played on hard courts, including in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters last month.
The top seed is 1/12 to beat Monaco again, while it is 1/4 that Murray progresses in straight sets.
Monaco does hold a win over Murray on the clay courts of Rome last year and he is 6/1 to move into the third round.
Perhaps the biggest second-round showdown pits two of the most out of form players on the ATP circuit against each other, although both have the capabilities of challenging at the business end of the tournament.
Fernando Verdasco had been knocked out in the first round of his last three tournaments before arriving in Valencia, while Gilles Simon arrived having only made it past the second round in four of his most recent five events.
The pair have not met in the last two years, with their only prior clash on a hard court coming at the 2007 US Open when Verdasco advanced in straight sets.
Verdasco is 4/6 to beat Simon and benefit from his home advantage, while Simon is 11/10 to move into a third-round showdown with the winner of the match between Nikolay Davydenko and Juan Ignacio Chela.
Elsewhere, Gael Monfils is still waiting to play his first round game with Eduardo Schwank and is 1/8 to win.
Monfils has never faced Schwank before but will be full of confidence having won his previous tournament before coming to Valencia in France.
Monfils is 10/1 to win the Valencia Open, with Murray 5/4 to take the title for the second year in a row. See the full Valencia Open winners betting odds market.
