Ferrer strolls into 3rd round in Paris

Paris - Spain’s David Ferrer eased past his compatriot Marcel Granollers into the third round of Paris tennis Masters.

The fourth seed Ferrer racked up 19 winners as he beat the world No.24 Wednesday 6-1, 6-3 and will face 16th seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in the next round.

Elsewhere, Serbian No.2 Janko Tipsarevic had to dig deep to defeat Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands, ranked 75th in the world.

The eighth seed won 6-4, 7-6(0) to book an encounter with Juan Monaco, seeded ninth, who ousted Bulgarian qualifier Grigor Dimitrov 7-6(4), 6-2.

Tipsarevic and Monaco are fighting for one of the last two slots at the Tour Finals in London next month. Monaco must beat the Serb and then reach the Paris final to overtake him in the crucial year-to-date rankings.

France’s Richard Gasquet became the second seeded player to crash out after suffering a three-set defeat to Kevin Anderson of South Africa.

Gasquet, seeded 12, lost the first set on a tie break before surging back in the second and being thrashed in the decider for a 6-7(5), 6-4, 1-6 defeat.

World No.39 Anderson will play fifth seed Tomas Berdych in the third round.