Top seed Roger Federer swept past Nicolas Mahut 6-4 6-4 in the first round of the Rotterdam Open.
Federer, appearing at the indoor hardcourt event for the first time since winning it seven years ago, broke once in each set during a 67-minute triumph.
And the Swiss 16-time grand slam winner received a further boost when his scheduled second-round opponent Mikhail Youzhny withdrew from the tournament with a foot problem.
Federer goes straight through to a quarter-final date against Finland's Jarkko Nieminen, who saw off Poland's Lukasz Kubot 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7/2).
"Any win is a good win. Frankly I'm glad to be in the quarter-finals," said Federer, whose win erased memories of his performance in Switzerland's 5-0 Davis Cup loss to the United States on the Fribourg clay last weekend.
"It's always tough to make the change from clay but after losing my last two singles matches a win is great.
"I had to get used to the conditions quickly. It was a good start, I came through well, Nicolas is a tough player."
Berdych races through
Second seed Tomas Berdych crushed Czech compatriot Lukas Rosol 6-4 6-2 in his opening match.
Just a few days after playing together for the Czech Republic in the Davis Cup, Berdych and Rosol went head-to-head in what turned out to be a one-sided first-round encounter.
World number seven Berdych fired down 10 aces and broke serve three times to advance.
"I'm satisfied. It was indoors but still a tough transition from Davis Cup," said Berdych.
"Our court was much faster with lower bounce. I didn't really have much time to train here. but I coped with it pretty well. I was able to find my rhythm quite fast and was able to play my game."
Third seed Juan Del Potro made a winning debut at the event as he ousted 2008 champion Michael Llodra 6-4 6-7 (3/7) 6-4.
Llodra, ranked 47th in the world, was fighting jet-leg after flying in from France's recent 4-1 Davis Cup victory over Canada in Vancouver, nine time zones away.
Del Potro admitted he had trouble closing out the victory. "I was nervous in the last game," said the South American, who returned to the top 10 after reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals in January.
"I'm really pleased to have won in my first match here."
In other first-round results, Marcos Baghdatis beat German Matthias Bachinger 7-6 (7/2) 6-2, Russian Alex Bogomolov advanced when Sergiy Stakhovsky quit injured when trailing 6-3 0-1 and Slovak Karol Beck saw off Germany's Philipp Petzschner 7-6 (8/6) 6-3.