On the fifth day of action at the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Masters 1000 tournament in the Spanish capital, top seed Nadal, entering in the second round on home courts, got his campaign underway with a convincing 6-1 6-2 win over compatriot Carlos Alcaraz, a qualifier.

Second seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia battled from a set down to get past Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 4-6 6-4 6-2.

Two more top five seeds enjoyed more comfortable progress, with fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas requiring less than an hour to beat France’s Benoit Paire 6-1 6-2 and fifth seed Alex Zverev of Germany convincingly beating Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-3 6-2.

The highest profile casualty of the day was seventh seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina who lost 2-6 6-4 6-1 to Russia’s Aslan Karatsev, while ninth seed Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain was edged out 6-4 6-7 7-6 by John Isner of the United States.

At the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 event held at the same complex, action reached the quarter-final stage on day nine.

Top seed Barty was made to work for her victory by ninth seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, with the Australian a 6-1 3-6 6-3 winner.

Aryna Sabalenka, the fifth seed from Belarus lead 6-1 4-0 when her opponent Elise Mertens of Belgium, the 13th seed, retired with injury.

World number 62 Paula Badosa, competing on home turf, scored the biggest upset of the day when she beat Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, the eighth seed, 6-4 7-5, with the Spaniard rewarded with a meeting with Barty in the last four tomorrow.

The remaining quarter-final saw Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic in two tie-break sets 7-6 7-6, to set up an encounter with Sabalenka.