China Open: Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Petra Kvitova advance to second round with easy wins

Beijing: Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray advanced to the second round of the China Open with straight-set wins on Tuesday in back-to-back matches on centre court. [caption id=“attachment_3034232” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rafael Nadal hits a return to Paolo Lorenzi during the first round of the China Open. AFP[/caption] Nadal, a 14-time Grand Slam champion, needed little more than an hour to beat Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-1, 6-1, fending off two break points as he took time to get his serve under control in the first set. The 2005 China Open champion, seeded second in Beijing, improved his first-service percentage from 42 to 85 in the second set. Murray defeated Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-2, 7-5 in the next match, dropping serve once in the second set. Murray, who took over the number one seeding when Novak Djokovic withdrew from the tournament, is playing at the China Open for the third time. He reached the quarterfinals on his debut and then the semi-finals. On the women’s side, Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic beat Chinese qualifier Wang Yafan 6-4, 6-1 to reach the third round. The Czech, who last week won the Wuhan Open, will next face defending China Open champion Garbine Muguruza.