World number two Rafael Nadal returned to his beloved claycourt surface and brushed aside Germany’s Alexander Waske 6-1, 6-1 to reach the second round of the Stuttgart ATP tournament.
This was the 21-year-old’s first match since losing the Wimbledon final to Roger Federer nine days ago, and the triple French Open champion needed just over an hour to see off Waske on Tuesday.
With second seed Tommy Robredo having lost on Monday, Tomas Berdych and defending champion David Ferrer are now Nadal’s main rivals.
Fourth seed Ferrer, who picked up the title in Bastad on Sunday, continued his run of good form on clay as he enjoyed a 6-2, 6-2 win over Slovak qualifier Lukas Lacko and will now meet fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
Third seed Berdych had no problems breezing into the second round with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Ecuador’s Nicolas Lapentti. The Czech dropped just eight points on serve during the match and saved the lone break point he faced.
Argentine Guillermo Canas won the first set against Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, but was forced to retire in the third set.
In better results for Argentines, seventh seed Juan Ignacio Chela defeated Max Mirnyi 6-3, 6-3 and Juan Monaco ousted Czech Jan Hernych 6-2, 6-1.
Gonzalez stunned
James Blake put on a potent display of shot making on his favourite hardcourt surface, while top seed Fernando Gonzalez was sent crashing out of the ATP Los Angeles event, adds AFP.
The 27-year-old Blake beat Alexander Peya of Austria 7-5, 6-4.
Blake advances to the second round, where he will face fellow-American Paul Goldstein. Goldstein defeated Adrian Garcia in three sets 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Chilean Gonzalez lost a shocker 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 to wild card Zach Fleishman of the United States.
Russian Igor Kunitsyn made the most of his first-round match by beating former Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian in straight sets 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 at the UCLA tennis stadium.
Kunitsyn advances to the second round, where he will face Germany's Nicolas Kiefer, who beat another Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-3, 6-3 on Monday.
In other first-round matches, American Vincent Spadea beat Thiago Alves of Brazil 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 and South Africa's Wesley Moodie defeated Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-3, 6-2. England's Alex Bogdanovic pulled out of his match with Czech Radek Stepanek with a back injury. Stepanek won the first set 6-1. Mardy Fish beat American compatriot Sam Querrey 7-5, 6-4.
Sania-Bethanie win
Top seeds Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mettack cruised into the quarterfinals of the $175,000 Cincinnati Open after a straight-set win over the Colombian-Chinese pair of Catalina Castano and Meng Yuan, reports PTI from Cincinnati. The Indo-American pair overwhelmed its unseeded rivals 6-4, 6-0 in a first-round match of the Tier 3 hardcourt tournament on Tuesday.
Exit Davydenko
In Amsterdam, Russian Nikolay Davydenko suffered his second successive first-round exit after Frenchman Florent Serra fought back from a set down to upset the top seed 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 at the Amersfoort Open. Fellow Russian and second seed Mikhail Youzhny overcame Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello 6-2, 7-5, while third-seeded Spaniard Carlos Moya hit nine aces to brush aside Christophe Rochus of Belgium 6-2, 6-3.