Tenth seed Raonic was hoping to continue his fine recent form, which has seen him end as the runner-up at Indian Wells, as well as reach the quarter-finals of the Miami Open.

He looked to be cruising into the second round of the tournament, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event, after he claimed the opening set 6-3.

Cecchinato produced a stronger challenge in the second but the world number 98 eventually fell to a straight sets 6-3, 7-5 loss.

“I think I did some things well, I stepped up and I played aggressive when I needed to,” Raonic said.

“But I let myself fall into a little bit too much of a defensive pattern where I was playing a little too far back.

“It didn’t allow me to use my game to dictate.”

The Canadian is now due to meet either Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas or Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver, with the two men scheduled to play their opening round tomorrow.

Ninth seed Richard Gasquet also earned a straightforward first round win, the Frenchman defeating Spain’s Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 6-0.

He will now meet Lucas Pouille, after he triumphed 7-6, 6-3 in an all-French tie against Nicolas Mahut.

Another French favourite, Gaël Monfils, defeated Luxembourg’s Gilles Müller 7-5, 6-0 to progress into the second round.

Fabio Fognini or Paolo Lorenzi, both of Italy, will play for the right to face the Frenchman.

Spain’s Rafael Nadal, winner of this tournament for six straight years from 2005 to 2012, will face the challenge of Britain’s Aljaz Bedene having been given a bye into the second round.

It followed the Slovenian-born Bedene earning a 6-2 6-3 win over the Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol.

Tomorrow will see Britain’s Andy Murray, the world number two, face France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert in his second round match.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic is the favourite to win the clay court tournament and the Serbian will face either Jiří Veselý of the Czech Republic or Georgia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili in his first tie.