BARCELONA: Marc Granollers of Spain eased past Marinko Matosevic of Bosnia 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the Barcelona Open on Monday.

Granollers will play sixth-seeded Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in the next round, and said he would need to play “his best version to stand a chance” against the Frenchman.

In a late match, Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia made fewer errors throughout to beat Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 7-5, 6-4, clinching the win with a powerful forehand passing shot.

Gabashvili takes on defending champion and top-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan in the second round.

Eight-time champion Rafael Nadal will play either Paolo Lorenzi of Italy or countryman Nicolas Almagro on Wednesday.

In other matches on Monday, Pablo Andujar of Spain beat fellow countryman Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 6-1 and Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci downed Yuichi Sugita of Japan 6-1, 6-0.

Also, Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia beat Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 6-4, 6-2 and France’s Benoit Paire defeated Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-2, 6-2, while Mikhail Kukushkin of Russia beat Joao Sourza of Brazil 6-1, 6-0.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2015

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