Top seed Kei Nishikori made a successful start to his Barcelona Open title defence with a straight sets victory over Teymuraz Gabashvili on Tuesday . Japan 's Nishikori emerged triumphant from the second-round encounter after seeing off his Russian opponent 6-3 6-4 . The other seeds to advance to the third round were both Spaniards - seventh seed Roberto Bautista-Agut with a 6-3 6-4 win over Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil , and ninth seed Tommy Robredo , the 2004 champion who was a 6-3 6-2 victor against Kazakhstan 's Mikhail Kukushkin . Top seed Kei Nishikori made a successful start to his Barcelona Open title defence with a straight sets victory . Japan 's Nishikori emerged triumphant from the second-round encounter after seeing off Teymuraz Gabashvili . Nishikori celebrates after defeating Gabashvili during day two of the Barcelona Open . Eight-time champion Rafael Nadal 's first match of this year 's tournament will be a second-round clash with fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro , whose first-round contest against Paolo Lorenzi came to a premature end when the Italian retired after three games . Also in round one on Tuesday , Albert Montanes set up a meeting with fellow home favourite David Ferrer - the third seed - by beating Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis 1-6 6-4 7-5 . Madrid-born 2010 champion Fernando Verdasco crashed out of the competition against Andrey Rublev . Dominican Victor Estrella Burgos defeated Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-3 7-6 ( 7/3 ) to progress to a meeting with Croatia 's fourth seed Marin Cilic . Another Spaniard appearing in round two will be fifth seed Feliciano Lopez , taking on Marsel Ilhan following the Turk 's 7-6 ( 7/2 ) 3-6 6-1 victory against Great Britain 's James Ward . But Madrid-born 2010 champion Fernando Verdasco 's participation is over after he lost 7-6 ( 7/4 ) 6-3 to Russian qualifier Andrey Rublev .
Japan 's Kei Nishikori emerged triumphant from second-round encounter . He beat his Russian challenger in straight sets of 6-3 6-4 in Barcelona . The world number one is now just two wins away from a record eighth Wimbledon title and will face either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal on Sunday to claim the trophy for himself.