RIO DE JANEIRO: World No. 3 Rafael Nadal made an impressive return to competition after an Australian Open quarterfinal loss, dispatching Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci 6-4, 6-1 Tuesday at the ATP Rio Open.

Defending champion Nadal, a 14-time Grand Slam champion, needed only 91 minutes in advancing to a second-round matchup against either Spanish compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta or Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq.

In the host city for next year’s Olympics, 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medal winner Nadal improved to 15-0 on Brazilian soil, having won titles at Costa do Sauipe in 2005, Sao Paulo in 2013 and Rio last year.

The 28-year-old Nadal began his 2015 season in Doha, where he lost in the first round while defending his title. At the Australian Open, Nadal saw a 17-match win streak against Tomas Berdych end with a surprise exit.

Clay-court maestro Nadal, who seeks his sixth French Open title in a row and 10th overall on Roland Garros clay later this year, elevated his play in the second set of his first match on the surface since last June’s Grand Slam final victory over Novak Djokovic.

Bellucci’s third double fault of the match handed Nadal a break after five prior missed chances for a 3-2 lead, but the home hope broke back in the next game to level the opening set.

Nadal and Bellucci exchanged breaks in the next two games before Nadal broke again for a 5-4 edge and held to take the first set after 51 minutes on a service winner.

Nadal broke to start the second set and broke again at love for a 3-0 edge, taking 14 of the first 20 points contested, and held twice for a 5-1 edge.

On Nadal’s third match point chance of the seventh game, Bellucci hit a forehand long to surrender the break and the match, falling in the first round for the fourth time in five events this year.

Bellucci made 31 unforced errors to only 12 by the Spaniard.

Nadal went 25-3 on clay last year and won three titles on the surface. He has the best clay court record in the Open Era at 318-24, including 45-7 in career clay-court finals.

Back pain forces out Querrey at Delray Beach

US sixth seed Sam Querrey was forced to withdraw with a sore back while leading his first-round match at the Delray Beach Open on Tuesday.

Colombia’s Alejandro Gonzalez advanced to the second round with the American leading 6-3, 1-2.

“I had a sudden movement at the net and kind of jerked my back a little bit,” Querrey said.

“It’s an injury that I felt before, but never on a specific motion like this. My lower back just kind of tightened up and I can’t really move it in any direction.”

Gonzalez will next face American Donald Young, whose hot streak of form — he reached the semifinals in Memphis last week — continued with a 7-5, 7-5 defeat of Croatia’s Ivan Dodig.

South African top seed Kevin Anderson and US second seed John Isner were each set to open in night matches against Australians, Anderson facing John-Patrick Smith and Isner meeting Marinko Matosevic.

French fifth seed Adrian Mannarino defeated US qualifier Eric Quigley 6-4, 6-4 while US seventh seed Steve Johnson advanced 6-3, 4-1 when Kazakstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin retired due to illness and Serbian eighth seed Viktor Troicki outlasted France’s Stephane Robert 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-1.

Two Aussies won early, with Bernard Tomic eliminating Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri 6-3, 6-3 and qualifier Thanasi Kokkinakis downing Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic 6-2, 6-3.

Two Asian players reached the second round as well, with Japanese qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka beating Dutchman Igor Sijsling 7-5, 6-1 and Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun defeating Aussie Sam Groth 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.