The British action got underway on day one of the Mutua Madrid Open, with Jack Draper coming through another emphatic three-set battle against Thanasi Kokinakkis, while it wasn’t meant to be for Emma Raducanu and Harriet Dart who both exited in the opening round.

British No.2 Draper eventually prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 in another tight clash against the Australian.

This marked the pair’s third career meeting, with both of their previous matches also going to three sets.

After the Brit secured a comfortable first set, the Australian looked to shift the momentum in his favour – eventually finding his breakthrough at 4-2 to level the battle. With little separating the two in the deciding set, it looked as though the match would be settled by a  deciding tie-break but a last minute sprint from the world No.43 saw him break at the perfect time to seal victory on his first match point.

Draper will now move on to face Hubert Hurkacz where he’ll be seeking revenge, after the Pole beat him at the Monte Carlo Masters just a couple of weeks ago.

Arriving in Madrid off the back of a quarter-final appearance at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Raducanu took on qualifier Maria Lourdes Carle, with the Brit losing out, 6-2, 6-2.

The Argentine had her foot on the gas pedal from the off as she broke Raducanu to love on the opening game of the matchbefore finding a second to seal the first set. Despite suffering an early break once again in the second, the Brit responded well to immediately break back but the world No.82 proved too tough to break down, winning five out of the next six games to eventually prevail.

Meanwhile, Dart, who came through two rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw, fell short in a tight battle against Spain’s Cristina Bucsa, 6-4, 6-4.

After a close first set went the way of the Spaniard, the British No.2 looked as though she would force a decider having taken a commanding 4-0 lead in the second set. However, a surge from Busca saw her win six consecutive games to book her spot in the second round.