Stan Wawrinka off to a winning start at the Madrid Open

Stanislas Wawrinka plays a backhand in his win over Joao Sousa in the Madrid Open

Stanislas Wawrinka began his Madrid Open campaign with a 7-6 (1), 7-5 win over Joao Sousa. A tie-break decided the first set after both players broke each other’s serve once in the first set.

Both players struggled to get their first serves in what was a windy evening in Madrid with Wawrinka managing to get just half of his first serves in. However, the former Australian Open champion won 90 % of those first service points and dominated the breaker to lead by a set.

The second set saw just a solitary break of serve for the Swiss which was sufficient to send him into the third round. Sousa was a tricky opponent for Wawrinka, but the World No. 9 scraped past him without dropping a set. Wawrinka will face the winner of Grigor Dimitrov and Fabio Fognini in his next match.

Dimitrov had an easy passage into the second round on Tuesday after American Donald Young retired trailing by a set and 0-3 down in the opening match. Fernando Verdasco dug deep to get the better of his compatriot Guillermo Garcia Lopez 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round.

Philipp Kohlschreiber recovered from a tough loss against Andy Murray in the Munich Open final to beat Alejandro Falla 6-1, 6-4 in his opening round encounter. He sets up a rematch with Murray in the second round.

Gael Monfils, a semifinalist in Monte-Carlo was in red hot form as he dispatched Viktor Troicki 6-2, 6-0. The Frenchman will take on Spaniard Marcel Granollers in the second round.

Nick Kyrgios beat Damien Gimeno-Traver 6-2, 6-3 to set up a mouth watering clash with top seed Roger Federer in the Round of 32. Milos Raonic took care of Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-4 and will face the winner of the match between Leonardo Mayer and Feliciano Lopez in the next round.

Other seeds to advance included Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (beat Lukas Rosol 7-5, 6-3) and Roberto Bautista Agut, who ousted Marius Copil 7-5, 6-3. Tsonga will take on Jack Sock, while Agut faces off against another American Sam Querrey in the next round.