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Nadal quickly back in old routine

  • Story Highlights
  • Rafael Nadal brushes aside Germany Alexander Waske 6-1 6-1 in Stuttgart
  • It was the 21-year-old's first match since losing the Wimbledon final
  • Top seed Nikolay Davydenko loses in first round in the Netherlands
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STUTTGART, Germany -- World number two Rafael Nadal brushed aside Germany's Alexander Waske 6-1 6-1 on Tuesday to reach the second round of the Stuttgart ATP claycourt tournament.

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This was the 21-year-old's first match since losing the Wimbledon final to Roger Federer nine days ago and the triple French Open champion needed just over an hour to see off Waske, 133 places below him in the rankings.

Nadal, chasing his sixth title of the year, said the 73-minute match was a good way to rediscover his game on clay.

"It always takes a little bit of time to adjust your game from grass to clay, and I only had three days practice," admitted Nadal, who will face Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber on Thursday in the second round.

With second seed Tommy Robredo having lost on Monday, Tomas Berdych and defending champion David Ferrer are now Nadal's main rivals.

Fourth seed Ferrer, who picked up the title in Bastad on Sunday, continued his run of good form on clay as he enjoyed a 6-2 6-2 win over Slovak qualifier Lukas Lacko and will now meet fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.

Third seed Berdych had no problems breezing into the second round with a 6-1 6-1 win over Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti.

The Czech, on a career-high ranking of 10 in the world, dropped just eight points on serve during the match and saved the lone break point he faced.

Argentine Guillermo Canas won the first set against Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, but was forced to retire after the first game of the third set.

In better results for Argentines, seventh seed Juan Ignacio Chela defeated Max Mirnyi 6-3 6-3 and Juan Monaco ousted Czech Jan Hernych 6-2 6-1.

Russian Nikolay Davydenko suffered his second successive first-round exit after Frenchman Florent Serra fought back from a set down to upset the top seed 4-6 6-1 6-1 at the Amersfoort Open in the Netherlands on Tuesday.

The world number five was defeated in the first round of last week's Swiss Open by another Frenchman, Gael Monfils.

The Russian started well against Serra to take the opening set but then crumbled to pick up only two games more.

Fellow Russian and second seed Mikhail Youzhny overcame Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello 6-2 7-5, while third seeded Spaniard Carlos Moya hit nine aces to brush aside Christophe Rochus of Belgium 6-2 6-3. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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