Top seed Rafael Nadal of Spain registered a comfortable 6-4 6-4 victory over Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the first round of the World Indoor Tournament in Rotterdam.

Spain's world number two played a solid match against the Russian hard-hitter and took the first set in 36 minutes after breaking his opponent's serve in the ninth game.

In the second set an early break proved sufficient for Nadal, who did not allow the world number 33 a single break opportunity.

"I felt very confident about this match and every aspect of my game," Nadal said.

"On this surface I have to serve well to play a good tournament this week and my service today was ok but I can do five or 10 km faster."

"But it was special to play a first round [match] for more than 8,000 spectators."

Earlier, Australian Lleyton Hewitt, the winner here in 2004 and ranked 19th in the world, went down to Italy's Andreas Seppi .

The Italian fought back from a set down to win 3-6 7-6 7-6 and set up a second round meeting with Nadal.

Former world number one Hewitt dominated the first set from the baseline against Seppi but failed to finish the job and struggled in both tiebreaks which he lost 7-4.

"At the end, I was very tired and I really should have won this match but Seppi played his best tennis," he said.

"It is frustrating if you have chances like this to proceed in the tournament. I just need a bit of luck and no injuries and I am sure I can work back towards the top five."

Big-serving Croat Ivan Ljubicic, a finalist here in 2005 and 2007, lost 6-3 6-3 to fifth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych.

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco brushed aside Jarkko Nieminen 6-2 6-2 and will face Swede Robin Soderling in the second round.

Russian qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili, who beat Spain's seventh seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in the first round, overcame Nicolas Mahut of France 6-2 7-6 to reach the quarter-finals.

Reuters