Intro:

Wins for Fabio Fognini, Marin Cilic and Feliciano Lopez in the late action from the opening day of the Madrid Open, while Bernard Tomic and Ernests Gulbis both crash out of the tournament.

Script:

Late action at the Madrid Open comenced with Italian Fabio Fognini up against Santiago Giraldo in the first round.

Fognini was in impressive form, hitting a total of 23 winners as he beat Giraldo 6-2, 6-3 to reach round two.

11th seed Feliciano Lopez crashed out of the Estoril Open early on last time out, and was determined to avoid a similar result in Madrid.

He was up against Benjamin Becker and made a strong start in taking the opening set 7-5.

Becker produced an improved second set to take it 6-3 and force the match into a decider.

It was the Spaniard who eventually prevailed closing out a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 win.

Ranked at 117th in the world Luca Vanni of Italy produced one of the early shock results of the tournament.

He recovered from losing the opening set to beat Australian Bernard Tomic 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 in less than two hours.

David Goffin of Belgium is another player who was taken to three sets.

He was up against Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, and it was Gulbis who was the stronger to start with taking the opening set 6-3.

But Goffin took the next two to book his place in the second round with a 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory

Ninth seed Marin Cilic had a more straightforward opening match. He won over Jiri Vesely 7-5 6-1.