 Ferrero has reached one final this year |
Second seed Juan Carlos Ferrero moved into the second round of the Valencia Open with a 6-3 6-1 over Ernests Gulbis of Latvia. Gulbis earned seven break points but was unable to take any of them, while Ferrero converted four chances.
Defending champion Nicolas Almagro was also largely untroubled in a 6-2 6-1 win over Czech player Jan Hajek.
Britain's James Ward was unable to make the most of a wildcard, losing 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 6-3 to Augustin Gensse.
Twenty-year-old Ward is the world number 851, while Gensse is over 400 places above him at 433.
Third seed Almagro said he had not been expecting to retain his title but he was encouraged by his first-round performance.
"If I continue to play like I did today, I'll leave this tournament with a lot of confidence, since I didn't think of myself as a favourite," he said.
Sixth seed Florian Mayer of Germany was beaten 6-3 6-3 by wildcard Santiago Ventura of Spain, while eighth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez is also out after a 6-3 1-6 6-3 defeat to Evgeny Korolev of Russia.
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