Rafael Nadal enjoyed a winning return after a six-week injury break, opening his Madrid campaign with a 6-1, 7-6(7/4) success over Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic on Wednesday.

The Spanish star had been sidelined with a rib injury since his Indian Wells final defeat in March but showed little sign of rust as he skipped into the third round.

The 22-year-old Kecmanovic entered the match carrying the second-highest tally of wins on tour this season –- his 23 victories placing him just one behind Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Carlos Alcaraz.

Nadal, a three-time title winner in 2022, improved to 21-1 for the year and now awaits the winner of the clash between Belgian qualifier David Goffin and Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.

After a fairly routine opening set and a brief rain delay, Nadal faced significant resistance from the world number 32, who was broken in game five of the second set but struck back immediately as he started to find his range from the baseline.

Nadal found an opening at 5-5 and broke on his first opportunity, thanks to a long backhand from Kecmanovic. The number three seed could not serve out the win though, dropping serve as Kecmanovic forced a tie-break.

The pair were neck and neck, gifting each other mini-breaks before Nadal finally secured the win in just under two hours with an ace.

Second-seeded Alexander Zverev began his title defence with a hard-fought 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over former US Open champion Marin Cilic.

The German is a two-time Madrid champion and now owns a 16-2 win-loss record at the Caja Magica.