Peru's Luis Horna beat Moroccan Hicham Arazi 6-4, 7-5 on Monday to set up a second round encounter with defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero at the Madrid Masters.
Horna, calm and focused, broke Arazi's serve to take the first set and looked set for a quick win when he pulled ahead 5-2 in the second.
An inspired Arazi recovered to pull back to 5-5 but then collapsed in his next service game to hand the match to Horna.
"I'm not afraid but I am nervous," Horna said. "Ferrero is keen to improve his ranking and he is on his home ground so it is going to be a tough game."
Spaniard Albert Costa, boosted by the home crowd, struggled to a tough 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 victory over Georgia's Irakli Labadze and will play number one seed Tim Henman in the second round.
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Countryman Alex Corretja also secured a second round place with a 7-5, 6-1 victory in an all-Spanish match against David Ferrer, while Sweden's Robin Soderling will face fourth seed David Nalbandian after beating Germany's Florian Mayer 6-3, 7-6.
Olympic silver medallist Mardy Fish, playing Croatia's Mario Ancic, recovered from failing to claim a single game in the first set to clinch a 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 win.
World number one Roger Federer has opted out of the tournament because of fatigue and Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt are also absent, leaving Britain's Henman as the top seed ahead of Andre Agassi and Marat Safin.
The 16 seeds have a bye through to the second round.