MADRID: The morning session at the Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament on Tuesday saw three men's seeds advance into the second round, while Maria Sharapova enjoyed a comfortable first match, a media report said on Wednesday.
Tenth seed Grigor Dimitov defeated American Donald Young 6- 4, 3-0 in a game that had to be abandoned before an hour of play when Young was forced to withdraw because of physical problems, Xinhua reported.
Number 12 seed, Frenchman Jo Wilfried Tsonga has a 7-6, 6-3 win over Czech, Lukas Rosol, while 13 seed Gael Monfils needed one hour exactly to get past Russian, Viktor Troicki 6-2, 6-0.
Meanwhile Spanish qualifier Alfred Ramos Vinolas produced a slight surprise by defeating Pablo Cuevas 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Leonardo Mayer enjoyed a straight sets triumph over Giles Muller.
In the women's tournament, reigning champion Maria Sharapova had a straightforward first game in the defence of the title she won last year.
The Russian, who is the third seed this year, defeated Colombian qualifier Mariana Duque Marino 6-1, 6-2.
Number four seed Petra Kvitkova was made to work a lot harder as she was taken to three sets in a match that lasted almost two hours against American, Coco Vandeweghe 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, while 15th seed Sara Errani became the victim of the first surprise of the competition as she lost 6-3, 7-6(6), 6-4 to Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.