Thiem's dream start in Barcelona

Getty Images

Up-and-coming duo Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev secured impressive wins in contrasting style to reach the third round of the Barcelona Open.

Thiem beat Zverev to the Nice title in an impressive clay season last year that saw him make the semi-finals of the French Open.

And the Austrian fourth seed looks set for another strong run on dirt after dispatching Kyle Edmund 6-1 6-4.

After beating the British number two, Dan Evans - ranked one place below his Davis Cup colleague - awaits in the next round.

Zverev faced a tougher prospect in Nicolas Almagro - a former finalist in Barcelona - and rallied impressively from 3-1 down in a deciding set to win 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-4.

The German had won just six of 11 matches since taking the title in Montpellier, and he had to dig deep again when Almagro opened up a 40-0 lead on the Zverev serve only for the youngster to fight back and convert match point at the second attempt.

Pablo Carreno Busta (7) and Benoit Paire (17) were successful seeds on Tuesday, seeing off Andreas Seppi and Marcel Granollers respectively.

David Ferrer (13) was beaten 6-3 6-4 by Kevin Anderson in his first match back from an ankle injury, and further fortune smiled on lucky loser Yuichi Sugita as he beat Richard Gasquet in three sets - the Frenchman playing for the first time since undergoing surgery in March for appendicitis.

Bernard Tomic, Jan-Lennard Struff, Hyeon Chung, Rogerio Dutra Silva, Nikoloz Basilashvili, Karen Khachanov and Horacio Zeballos were winners of Tuesday's first-round matches.


>