BARCELONA — Japan's Kei Nishikori won his first clay match of the season returning from a three-week absence due to a groin injury with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the third-round of the Barcelona Open Tuesday. The 24-year-old fourth-seeded Nishikori, who hadn't played since pulling out of his Miami Masters semifinal with Novak Djokovic on March 28th, said he had felt no pain during the match, which he won in just under two hours against the 45th-ranked Spaniard. “I'm very happy to win,” said Nishikori, who had prepared for the tournament by training on clay in Florida last week. Nishikori, ranked 17th in the world, next faces Andrey Golubev after the Kazakh won when French 16th seed Benoit Paire quit late in their match trailing 6-4, 5-1. Nishikori, whose best performance in Barcelona was reaching the quarterfinals in 2012, was pleased with the majority of his game. “I played well in the first and third set and he was more aggressive in the second, I couldn't do anything. There was a bit of a momentum shift in the third set. It was a good win for me.” Nishikori is accompanied this week by coach Michael Chang, whom he says is giving him confidence. “He hasn't changed much in my clay game,” he said of the 1989 French Open. “But he does give me a lot of information, I can learn a lot from him.” Ninth seed Ernests Gulbis won his second-round contest over Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-5, 7-6 (7-1). Top seed and eight-time Barcelona champion Rafael Nadal, who is bidding to bounce back after a rare defeat in the Monte Carlo Masters last week when compatriot David Ferrer beat him in the quarterfinals, will play Albert Ramos in the second round. Ramos, 26 and who has never got past the second round of a Grand Slam tournament in seven attempts, disposed of experienced Russian Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 6-4 in their first round clash. Mayr-Achleitner upsets Svitolina In Marrakech, Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria surprised second-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-2 in the first round of the Grand Prix SAR Tuesday. Svitolina made seven double faults and blew a 5-2 lead in the first set. The Ukrainian teenager then broke for a 5-3 lead in the next set to even the match. But Mayr-Achleitner broke Svitolina three times in the final set. Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, Peng Shuai of China and Romina Oprandi of Switzerland survived three-setters to reach the second round. The top-seeded Hantuchova made the decisive break in the penultimate game to outlast Czech qualifier Renata Voracova 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, the sixth-seeded Peng beat Tunisian wild-card Ons Jabeur 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, and Oprandi rallied past Italian lucky loser Anastasia Grymalska 5-7, 6-1, 6-4. Spaniards Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor, Garbine Muguruza and Lara Arruabarrena won their first-round matches in straight sets. Torro-Flor cruised past fourth-seeded Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia 6-2, 6-2, the fifth-seeded Muguruza did not face any break points in her 6-2, 6-2 win over Julia Glushko of Israel, and qualifier Arruabarrena downed Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 6-3. Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland and Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium also advanced to the second round. Voegele fired nine aces in her 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Silvia Soler-Espinosa of Spain and Van Uytvanck ousted Alexandra Cadantu of Romania 6-4, 6-1. — Agencies
