Jamie Donaldson one off the lead as stars struggle at Nordea Masters

Former Ryder Cup star Jamie Donaldson enjoyed a welcome return to form as he and fellow Welshman Bradley Dredge ended the first day of the Nordea Masters just one off the lead.

Donaldson and Dredge made light of difficult scoring conditions at a cool and breezy Barseback near Malmo to fire four-under 69s, while Renato Paratore and England's Max Orrin shared the lead as star draws Henrik Stenson, Alex Noren and Matt Fitzpatrick struggled for consistency.

Paratore, regarded as one of the fastest professionals in the world, made a shaky start with bogeys at the third and fourth, but he staged a valiant fightback to set the early clubhouse target at five-under par.

The young Italian made three birdies in five holes to turn in 35 and he picked up another shot at 10 before jumping into a tie for the lead with a superb eagle at the long 12th.

Paratore displayed a nice touch from the sand at 16 as he got up and down for another birdie, and came within a whisker of earning the outright lead when his putt for a closing three lipped out.

"The key for me today was the driver from the tee," he told the European Tour. "That's very important here because it's a narrow course. Today it was important that I managed to drive really well. It's a tricky course - both the front nine through the trees and the back nine down at the coast."

He was later joined at the top of the leaderboard by Orrin, who has enjoyed a solid run of form since February and has not finished outside the top 30 in his last five starts on the European Tour and the Challenge Tour.

Orrin began with a birdie at the first but then blotted his card with a double-bogey at the third, although he hit back with birdies at five, six and eight before adding three more over the inward nine.

Donaldson is without a European Tour win since August 2014, just a month before he earned the winning point for Europe in the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, and has slumped to 256th in the world rankings after making the cut only three times in nine tournaments this season.

But he put himself on course for a revival with a bogey-free round which included a run of three consecutive bogeys from the 18th - his ninth - before finding another to finish off at the ninth.

Dredge produced one of the best finishes of the day as he birdied four of his last five holes to claim a share of third with Donaldson, while popular Englishman Eddie Pepperell is a stroke further adrift after he returned a solid four-birdie 70.

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Stenson covered the back nine in one under before a poor run of three bogeys in four holes left him seven off the lead, although the Open champion managed to claw shots back at the fifth and ninth to get back to level par.

Defending champion Fitzpatrick also fired a 73 as he offset four birdies with as many bogeys, while Noren could not find the swing that propelled him to a memorable victory at Wentworth on Sunday and he bogeyed his final two holes to card a disappointing 75.