Raonic, Nieminen win opening matches in Barcelona

11th seed Canadian Milos Raonic won his first round match of the Barcelona Tennis Open as he defeated Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-4 7-6 (3).

Raonic will meet the winner of the match between Igor Andreev and Diego Junqueira in round 2.

Also through to the second round is Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, who overcame the Spanish wild card holder Javier Marti in straight sets 6-4  6-1.

In other first round matches, Serbian wild card holder Filip Krajinovic eliminated another wild card holder Inigo Cervantes of Spain 6-2  6-4, Santiago Giraldo of Colombia beat the 18th seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 7-6 (3)  6-4, Portuguese qualifier Joao Sousa dismissed Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 7-6 (5)  6-3 and Belgian Steve Darcis won a hard fought battle against the Kazakh qualifier Andrey Golubev 4-6  7-6 (2)  7-6 (5).

Top seeds Spaniard Nadal and Britain’s Murray have a first round bye.

Tags alejandro falla Andrey Golubev Andy Murray Barcelona Tennis Filip Krajinovic Igor Kunitsyn Inigo Cervantes jarkko nieminen Joao Sousa Milos Raonic Rafael Nadal Santiago Giraldo Steve Darcis tennis news