MADRID, Oct 14: Fernando Gonzalez and Marcelo Rios made it a Chilean double at the inaugural Madrid Masters Monday, both players serving up quickfire victories on the tournament’s opening day.

Gonzalez got the proceedings off to a blistering start with a 6-3 6-2 victory over the Brazilian qualifier Andre Sa.

He was followed out on to centre court by Rios, who needed less than an hour to see off the Argentine Gaston Gaudio 6-2 6-2.

That result marked a disappointing return to Spain for Gaudio, who won back-to-back tournaments at Barcelona and Mallorca earlier in the season.

In the first match up on court number one, Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen recovered from a terrible start to beat Rainer Schuettler of Germany 1-6 6-4 7-6.

The Russian Mikhail Youzhny then wasted little time booking his place in the second round with a 6-2 6-2 success against Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina.

Gonzalez’s outstanding performance against the tricky Sa provided an excellent start for the indoor tournament, which has a new home at a converted rock concert hall in Madrid after the Spanish capital acquired the rights from Stuttgart.

The 22-year-old’s serve overwhelmed Sa, who was broken early in the match and soon found himself 5-2 down.

A booming service winner down the middle gave Gonzalez the first set in 32 minutes and he broke in game five of the second with a backhand pass down the line to move further clear.

Sa forced two deuces in the next but Gonzalez’s serve got him out of trouble and he comfortably held on for victory in one hour six minutes to set up a second-round meeting with eighth seed Carlos Moya.

“I felt great during that match,” Gonzalez said. “My serve was very good and I was returning better than I had been.

“The game against Moya is going to be tough. He’s one of the best players in the world now.”

Moya is among the 16 seeds given byes through to the second round. In the absence of world number one Lleyton Hewitt, who was forced to withdraw on Friday because of illness, the top two seeds are Tommy Haas, who won the tournament last year in Stuttgart, and Andre Agassi.

First round results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) beat Juan Ignacio Chela (Argentina) 6-2 6-2 Marcelo Rios (Chile) beat Gaston Gaudio (Argentina) 6-2 6-2 Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) beat Andre Sa (Brazil) 6-3 6-2 Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) beat Rainer Schuettler (Germany) 1-6 6-4 7-6 (7-5)—Reuters