Cameron Norrie belatedly found his feet on clay with a hard-fought victory over Egor Gerasimov in his opening match at the Barcelona Open.
The British number one, beaten in his first match of the clay-court season by Albert Ramos-Vinolas in Monte Carlo last week, dropped the opening set to Belarusian Gerasimov.
But Norrie, now ranked 10 in the world, hit back in the second and recovered from being an early break down in the third to register a 5-7 6-4 6-4 victory, his 16th win of the year.
British number two Dan Evans lost his grudge match against Italian Lorenzo Musetti.
Evans had suggested that Musetti should learn “some manners” after losing a deciding-set tie-break against the youngster in Cagliari last year.
But he was unable to turn the tables this time, squandering two set points in the second-set tie-break before going down 6-4 7-6 (8) to the 20-year-old world number 68.
In Belgrade, Dominic Thiem’s latest comeback ended with an opening-match defeat at the Serbia Open.
The Austrian former world number three, playing his first ATP Tour match since suffering a wrist injury last June which needed surgery, was beaten 6-3 3-6 6-4 by Australia’s John Millman.
Thiem initially made his comeback from injury at the Challenger event in Marbella last month, losing to Pedro Cachin, and was then sidelined by Covid-19.
