Rafael Nadal opened the defence of his Toronto Masters tennis title with a 6-3 6-2 win over Chile's Nicolas Massu today.
Back in action for the first time since losing to world No 1 Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final, the Spaniard took his first step towards continuing his rivalrywith the Swiss, who plays later against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu.
Federer and Nadal have taken ownership of the men's game, having won six of the last seven Grand Slams and 12 of 14 Masters Series events, including the last two Toronto Masters.
After a month layoff, Nadal laboured against the feisty Chilean, particularly in a tough opening set that took 68 minutes to complete.
The muscular French Open champion slugged it out from the baseline and finally secured the crucial break at 4-3 and then broke Massu again to clinch the opening set.
Nadal slowly wrestled control of the match in the second set, breaking to go up 3-1 and again to close out the match to set up a second-round match against Korean qualifier Lee Hyung-Taik.
Sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko, of Russia, suffered a first-round shock, falling 6-3 7-5 to Belgian Xavier Malisse and joining 10th seed Marco Baghdatis, who lost to Julien Benneteau yesterday, on the casualty list.
German 16th seed Tommy Haas continued his domination over Max Mirnyi, disposing of the Belarusian 6-3 6-3 to register his eighth win in nine career meetings.
