Dan Evans beaten by Robin Haase at Madrid Open

British number three Dan Evans suffered first round disappointment at the Madrid Open as he was beaten 7-5 6-2 by Robin Haase.

Evans, ranked 58th in the world, struggled to gain a foothold after making a poor start in both sets, with world number 45 Haase winning in straight sets in one hour and 19 minutes.

Evans only registered the first two ATP Tour wins on clay of his career last month at the Barcelona Open reaching the last 16 before defeat to Dominic Thiem, but despite fighting back gamely in the opening set, his Dutch opponent proved too strong.

Evans was broken in the opening game of the contest before fighting back to level when Haase was serving for the set, but the 30-year-old Dutchman broke back again himself before serving out the opener at the second time of asking.

It was then an even worse start to the second set than the first for Evans, losing his first two service games, and with a 4-0 lead, Haase had little trouble wrapping things up to advance to a meeting with Tomas Berdych who beat Denis Istomin 6-4 6-4 in just 63 minutes.

Andy Murray's campaign gets underway later in the week and he will face a first ever meeting with Romania's world no 104 Marius Copil, who toppled Guillermo Garcia Lopez in the first round.

The pair battled it out for two hours and 52 minutes, with both men having match points in an epic third set tie-breaker, before Copil finally prevailed 7-6 4-6 7-6.

Murray reached the final in Madrid last year, losing to Novak Djokovic, and having reached the last four in Barcelona before losing to Thiem will hope to continue his return to form after a recent elbow injury.

World no 16 Gael Monfils was the biggest name early casualty as he lost a bizarre encounter to fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon who prevailed 0-6 6-0 7-6.

Monfils is on the comeback trail following knee and Achilles injuries and having lost to Hyeon Chung in Munich last week looked on course for a return to form when he wrapped up the first set in under half an hour and with three break of serve.

But Simon rallied to take the second set by the same scoreline to level things up and set up a decider which went all the way to a tie-break despite Monfils receiving treatment.

In keeping with the topsy-turvy nature, Monfils failed to pick up a single point as Simon won the tie-break 7-0 to move into the second round.

Among the other early winners on Monday were 12th seed Grigor Dimitrov, who returned to winning ways with an impressive straight sets win.

The Bulgarian had suffered three straight defeats in his opening match of his last three tournaments after a bright start to the season, but he was victorious to advance to the second round where he will face either Roberto Bautista Agut or Ivo Karlovic.

Follow the Madrid Open on Sky Sports with the action continuing on Tuesday from 11am on Sky Sports 1

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