Big guns advance at China Open

Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray advanced to the second round of the China Open with straight-set wins on Tuesday in back-to-back matches on centre court.

World No.4 Nadal needed little more than an hour to beat Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-1 6-1, fending off two break points as he took time to get his serve under control in the first set.

The 2005 China Open champion, seeded second in Beijing, improved his first-service percentage from 42 to 85 in the second set.

Murray defeated another Italian Andreas Seppi 6-2 7-5 in the next match, dropping serve once in the second set.

Murray, who took over the No.1 seeding when Novak Djokovic withdrew from the tournament, is playing at the China Open for the third time. He reached the quarterfinals in his debut and then the semis.

The world No.2 was playing his first competitive match since his Davis Cup win over Guido Pella a fortnight ago, when he suffered a thigh injury.

There were doubts whether the Scot would compete in Beijing after the injury in Glasgow came at the end of a punishing schedule over the summer, during which he had lost just four matches since the end of May.

But, with a shot at the No.1 ranking in mind and no Djokovic in the draw, Murray stuck to his itinerary and was able to get the job done in straight sets against Seppi.

He will play Konstantin Kravchuk or Andrey Kuznetsov in the second round, with a potential match-up against British No.2 Kyle Edmund in the quarter-finals.