BARCELONA, Spain (AP)—Fifteenth-seeded Nicolas Almagro lost only seven points on serve and beat fellow Spaniard Santiago Ventura 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of the Barcelona Open on Monday.
Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci, the No. 13 seed, defeated Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 6-4, and Richard Gasquet of France beat Igor Andreev of Russia 7-6 (5), 6-4.
The tournament lost some of its top players earlier in the day when third-ranked Rafael Nadal, sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych and David Nalbandian withdrew.
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain rallied to beat qualifier Christophe Rochus 5-7, 6-1, 6-3, as did compatriot Oscar Hernandez in ousting Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-4.
Other winners included Juan Ignacio, Jan Hajek, Thiemo De Bakker and Eduardo Schwank.