Time finally catches up with old guards Kuerten, Moya
Kuerten, a triple French Open champion and twice a winner here, slumped to a 6-1, 6-2 first round defeat to Croatian Ivan Ljubicic while fellow 31-year-old Moya, the 1998 Monte Carlo and Roland Garros champion, fell to 20-year-old Querrey.
Former world No 1 Kuerten, who has played just 14 matches in the last three years because of a crippling hip injury, is on a farewell tour which will culminate in an emotional finale at the French Open.
On Monday’s evidence, it will be a brief affair for a player now ranked at 1,145 in the world.
The 1999 and 2001 Monte Carlo champion dropped serve twice to lose the first set and, with two more breaks in the second set, Ljubicic romped to victory in just 51 minutes and will face Australian Open champion and third seed Novak Djokovic in the next round.
“It’s still enjoyable,” said Kuerten. “It’s nice to play the tournaments again where I have such great memories of what’s happened in the past.
“I’m happy to be able to play a few more tournaments. There’s a nice part of my life to come but it’s hard to play in the condition I am in.”
After playing in Costa Do Saupe and Florianapolis in his native Brazil, Kuerten also turned out and lost in the first round of Miami.
Now he has just two events left – Barcelona next week and then Roland Garros.
Giant Californian Querrey stunned Moya 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to hand the 10th seeded Spaniard his fourth successive opening round defeat here.
Querrey, the world No 50, won his first career title in Las Vegas earlier this year and his giant 198cm (6ft 6ins) frame proved no hindrance on the clay courts where Moya was playing for the 12th time.
Murray, the 14th seed and also just 20, buried the painful memory of his last visit to Monaco with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 win over Spain’s Feliciano Lopez.
Twelve months ago, Murray was forced to scratch from the singles after injuring his back playing doubles with brother Jamie.
But on Monday there were no such problems as the Briton, being coached during the claycourt season by former French Open runner-up Alex Corretja, booked a match-up with Italy’s Filippo Volandri.
“It was a good start, I played well and didn’t make many mistakes,” said Murray with titles in Qatar and Marseille already in 2008.
“I spoke to Alex before the match and we said that we wanted to be patient and not make too many unforced errors.
“Patience is the number one thing. If you do that well then hopefully the rest of the stuff will follow.”
Croatian wildcard Mario Ancic also moved into the second round with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Czech qualifier Ivo Minar to set-up a meeting with second seed Rafael Nadal, the triple Monte Carlo and French Open champion.
Nadal will be making his 2008 claycourt bow with a formidable record of 107 wins from 110 matches on his favourite surface in the last three years.
World No 1 Roger Federer, who was laid low by glandular fever earlier this year, arrives in Monte Carlo buoyed by having won a first title of the season at Estoril.
The Swiss star, a runner-up here for the last two years to Nadal, believes his win in Portugal will provide a timely boost for another assault on the French Open, the only major to have eluded him.
Federer will open his campaign against either France’s Gilles Simon or Spanish qualifier Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.
Also reaching the second round was the 2002 and 2003 champion Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, the 13th seed, who put out France’s Michael Llodra 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-1.
But Germany’s Tommy Haas was forced to retire against Belgian qualifier Olivier Rochus because of a shoulder injury while trailing 6-1, 3-0.
France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu, the ninth seed, was also a first day casualty losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 to Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic.
Monday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):
First round: Gael Monfils (France) bt Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 7-5, 6-4; Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) bt Gustavo Kuerten (Brazil) 6-1, 6-2; Nicolas Lapentti (Ecuador) bt Potito Starace (Italy) 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (2-7), 6-4; 16-Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) bt Jose Acasuso (Argentina) 7-6 (7-4), 6-3; Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) bt 9-Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) 6-4, 2-6, 6-3; Sam Querrey (US) bt 10-Carlos Moya (Spain) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3; Robin Soderling (Sweden) bt Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3; 14-Andy Murray (Britain) bt Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4; Filippo Volandri (Italy) bt Nicolas Mahut (France) 6-2, 6-3; Olivier Rochus (Belgium) bt Tommy Haas (Germany) 6-1, 3-0 – Haas retired; 13-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) bt Michael Llodra (France) 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-1; Kristof Vliegen (Belgium) bt Fabrice Santoro (France) 7-6 (7-4), 6-1; Mario Ancic (Croatia) bt Ivo Minar (Czech Republic) 6-3, 6-4.—Agencies