Home player Alvaro Vazquez won his first two qualifying matches ©BWF

Home player Alvaro Vazquez won his first two qualifying matches today at the Badminton World Federation Spain Masters event.

Spain's Olympic gold medallist and triple world champion Carolina Marin is the stand-out name but has yet to play.

The 25-year-old is seeded first in the women's draw after winning her third world title earlier this month in Nanjing.

Vazquez’s opening challenge in this Badminton World Federation Super 300 event at Barcelona's Pavelló de la Vall d'Hebron was fellow countryman Alex Dominguez, and he came through 18-21, 21-14, 21-15.

Spain's world and Olympic champion Carolina Marin is the player home fans will be watching out for at the BWF Spanish Masters that started in Barcelona today ©Getty Images
Spain's world and Olympic champion Carolina Marin is the player home fans will be watching out for at the BWF Spanish Masters that started in Barcelona today ©Getty Images

Later in the afternoon he beat Hannes Gerberich of Germany 21-17, 21-15.

Spain’s Manuel Vazquez also got off to a wining start, beating England’s Raymond Webster 21-3, 21-4.

Denmark’s Rasmus Messerschmidt also registered two wins on day one, first overcoming France’s Christo Popov 21-14, 12-21, 21-11 and then beating Manuel Vazquez 21-16, 21-13.

In the four opening women’s singles matches in qualification play, France’s Marion Le Turdu beat Chinese Taipei’s Ya Lan Chang 15-21, 21-18, 21-15, and Switzerland’s Ronja Stern had a 13-21, 21-9, 21-15 win over Isabel Zhong of the United States.

Debora Jille of The Netherlands beat Michelle Skodstrup of Denmark on a walk over, and Lauren Lam of the United States defeated the Czech Republic’s Zuzana Pavelkova 21-19, 21-14.