The number one seed Rafael Nadal made a sensational return on his favourite surface today, beating German Alexander Waske 6-1 6-1. Nadal is playing his first tournament on clay since winning his third title at Roland Garros and the Spaniard did take long to regain his unbeatable form. The only hiccup for Nadal came in the form of two break points, however he managed to save both to notch up his 27th victory on clay this year.

 

One of Nadal's biggest rivals, Tomas Berdych, also sailed through to the second round with a 6-1 6-1 defeat of Nicolas Lapentti. Berdych blasted his way through his service games, only losing eight points in the whole entire match to demolish Lapentti.

 

Following his title win in Bastad, defending champion David Ferrer is again one of the title favourites and he showed why by cruising into the next round with a 6-2 6-2 win over qualifier Lukas Lacko.

 

Other winners today were Juan Carlos Ferrero, Juan Ignacio Chela and Juan Monaco while Guillermo Canas was forced to retire in his match against Stanilas Wawrinka because of leg cramps.

 

Results:

Singles - First Round
[1] R Nadal (ESP) d [WC] A Waske (GER) 61 61
[3] T Berdych (CZE) d N Lapentti (ECU) 61 61
S Wawrinka (SUI) d [5] G Canas (ARG) 67(5) 62 10 ret. (right thigh)
[6] J Ferrero (ESP) d G Gaudio (ARG) 61 62
[7] J Chela (ARG) d M Mirnyi (BLR) 63 63
[8] J Monaco (ARG) d J Hernych (CZE) 62 61
S Koubek (AUT) d J Acasuso (ARG) 62 75
[4] D Ferrer (ESP) d [Q] L Lacko (SVK) 62 62
P Kohlschreiber (GER) d [WC] S Greul (GER) 61 62
F Lopez (ESP) d C Berlocq (ARG) 67(5) 76(7) 64 - Saved 4 M.P.
D Hartfield (ARG) d J Hajek (CZE) 64 62

Doubles - First Round
[1] Aspelin/Knowle d Navarro Pastor/Wawrinka 64 62
Cermak/Friedl d [WC] Jerich/Schmolzer 62 61
M Garcia/Prieto d [3] Levinsky/Skoch 63 63

Post this story to:   del.icio.us  |   Digg  |   Newsvine  |   NowPublic  |   Reddit