Nadal sails past Sluiter to open with Stockholm victory

By Bill Scott Oct 10, 2006, 22:27 GMT

Rafael Nadal of Spain returns the ball to Raemon Sluiter of the Netherlands during their first round match at the Stockholm Open tennis tournament in Stockholm, Tuesday 10 October 2006. EPA/MARK EARTHY

Stockholm - Spain's Rafael Nadal set a winning pace in his first career match at the Stockholm Open, earning a 6-4, 6-2 win over Raemon Sluiter on Tuesday.

The world number 2, who won the title on clay at Bastad in 2005, had never played in the capital. But the two-time French Open holder showed fighting spirit as he held off the tenacious, hard-hitting Dutchman in just under 90 minutes to advance into the second round at the Kungligahallen.

'I'm happy with my game, but it's been a long time since I played,' Nadal said. 'I have to concentrate more on my serve indoors. It's much more important.'

'On clay, I can always win the point from the baseline no matter what the serve, but it's not that way at all indoors,' he said.

Nadal was out-acred five to eight by the world number 90, whose season has been a exercise in bad luck. Sluiter now stands 7-17.

Sluiter did liven up the evening as he paused during one of the later games to playfully sign an oversized tennis ball for a female fan sitting courtside.

Nadal, playing in his first ATP match since a US Open quarter- final loss to Russian Mikhail Youzhny, won his 55th match of the season against eight defeats.

Chile's Nicolas Massu suffered a disappointing 27th birthday as he went down to Belgian Kristof Vliegen 6-2, 6-4.

'Unfortunately I wasn't able to give myself a birthday present today with a win,' he said. It's been almost 10 years that I haven't had a birthday at home which is always a bit sad.'

'The last time was maybe when I was 17 years old. But I'll go out this evening and have a nice dinner with my coach and some friends from Chile and have a good time.'

It took one hour, 20 minutes for the seventh seed to go through to the second round, where he faces Canadian Frank Dancevic.

Massu, 36-24 on the year with a title in Costa do Sauipe, Brazil and three more clay finals on the year, pushed a backhand into the net to lose.

Spain's Feliciano Lopez barely lifted a racket as Argentine opponent Juan Monaco retired with a right knee injury 25 minutes into their first-round match.

The back-door win put Lopez into the second round against fourth- seeded compatriot David Ferrer.

Lopez can begin improving from 12th place in the standings for the eight-man Masters Cup in Shanghai if he can win that next match.

The winner now stands 17-26 on the season, with Lopez producing a 2006 best of the Gstaad final, where he lost to Richard Gasquet.

Andreas Vinciguerra and former champion Jonas Bjorkman both earned wins.

Vinciguerra beat Nicolas Devilder of France 6-4, 6-1, while Bjorkman, who is writing a tournament blog this week for the ATP, opened with a victory over Peter Wessels of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-2.

Starting Thursday, Bjorkman will team with 47-year-old John McEnroe in doubles after the pair won the San Jose title last February.