Nicolas Almagro got off to a glorious start (photo: rpctv.com)

Former top 10 players Nicolas Almagro of Spain and Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny notched up effortless wins in their respective first-round encounters at the ATP 250 Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca, Morocco.

Whilst the former pulled off his second consecutive conquest of Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel 6-4 6-1, the latter also eased past wildcard entrant Yassine Idmbarek 6-3 6-1 on Tuesday here.

“Today I was very aggressive from the baseline and played a good match,” Almagro was quoted as saying by the ATP World Tour.

Foreseeing a tough battle in the second round with Carlos Berlocq, he added: “Tomorrow, I expect a tough battle against Carlos, who is an excellent clay-court player. I’m ready to fight.”

1^st Round Results

(W) L Ouahab d. R Haase (6-2 6-4)

D Gimeno-Traver d. M Jaziri (6-4 6-3)

M Youzhny d. Y Idmbarek (6-3 6-1)

(Q) A Bedene d. M Gonzalez (6-3 3-6 6-3)

(Q) AD Greef d. (8) D Schwartzman (4-6 7-5 6-4)

(6) A Haider-Maurer d. J Struff (6-2 6-7 7-6)

P Andujar d. T Kamke (6-3 6-4)

D Dzumhur d. (Q) P Mathieu (6-2 7-6)

(W) N Almagro d. (Q) T Daniel (6-4 6-1)