Argentine Guillermo Coria laid out his plans for the claycourt season in just 48 minutes with a 6-0, 6-1 demolition of Thomas Enqvist in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday.
Crowd favourites Goran Ivanisevic and Gustavo Kuerten, however, went out of the tournament on the opening day.
Runner-up in the principality last year, third seed Coria was in devastating form as he outclassed his Swedish opponent from the baseline.
Coria was playing his first match since being forced to retire from the Nasdaq-100 Open final against Andy Roddick earlier this month with what had initially been diagnosed as a disc hernia.
"But it was kidney stones," said Coria.
"All I had to do was a drink a lot and they went away in one week."
Tim Henman survived a stern test on his first outing on clay this year to overcome American Vince Spadea 6-7, 6-4, 7-6.
The British sixth seed, who did not play at the event last year, struggled to adapt his serve-and-volley game to the slow surface.
"It was my first match on clay this year and you could not expect great tennis," said Henman.
"It was a tense battle. To play a player like Spadea in your first match in a Masters Series on clay means you have all it takes for a very tricky first round match."
Spadea dominated the opening set and after winning it 7-5 in the tiebreak, the American kept Henman pegged back by breaking the early in the second set.
However, Henman fought back to secure the second set before sealing the match by winning the deciding tiebreak 7-5.
"The conditions were very windy and the balls were flying. It did not help either (of us)," Henman added.
KUERTEN OUT
Three-times French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten slumped to a 7-6, 6-3 defeat by fourth seed Rainer Schuettler.
The former world number one was hopelessly out of form on his favourite surface and had to be content with saving a match point before handing victory to his German opponent by floating a return long.
"On clay or elsewhere, it's always disappointing to lose in the first round of a tournament you've won," said Kuerten, who won the Monte Carlo crown in 1999 and 2001.
"I expected a lot from that week and it's over."
For Schuettler, who arrived in Monte Carlo with just two singles victories under his belt on the ATP tour since the start of the season, the result ended a four-match losing streak.
Ivanisevic's glory days looked far behind him when the former Wimbledon champion was beaten by a French qualifier.
The Croatian ran out of steam as Nicolas Devilder recorded a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win.
Ivanisevic was playing his sixth tournament of the year and he has won just two matches in 2004.
Dutchman Sjeng Schalken, Czech Jiri Novak and Chile's Fernando Gonzalez were the seeded casualties on the first day.
Schalken, seeded 11, was beaten by Argentine Agustin Calleri 6-1, 6-3 while 12th seed Novak bowed out 6-4, 7-5 to American Taylor Dent.
Gonzalez, the 13th seed, suffered a 6-4, 6-3 defeat by Belarus's Max Mirnyi.