Pablo Carreno Busta holds off Stan Wawrinka in Bastad opener

Pablo Carreno Busta started his Nordea Open campaign with a first-round win on Monday, defeating 16-time tour-level titlist Stan Wawrinka.

The fifth-seeded Carreno Busta claimed a break in each set to triumph 7-5, 6-4 in a high-quality clash against the former World No. 3, who showed flashes of his brand roaring groundstrokes in just his sixth tour-level event since missing 13 months with a foot injury.

"It was a very tough match for me in the first round," said Carreno Busta in his on-court interview.

"Against Stan it is always very difficult to start the tournament, so I'm happy because I thought my level was good. I played very solid from the baseline. It was a bit difficult with the wind, but I thought my serve was very good throughout the match. It was very important to my game," he added.

Carreno Busta has endured a tough run on the clay of late, going 1-4 on the turf since reaching the summit at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell in April. Yet despite Wawrinka shooting 10 aces and winning 90 per cent (27/30) of points behind his maiden serve to keep the Spaniard under pressure in Sweden, Carreno Busta was clinical in transforming two of his six break-point chances to win in one hour, 24 minutes.

It is Carreno Busta's first ATP Head2Head victory against Wawrinka, whose three earlier victories against the Spaniard included a semi-final triumph at the 2017 Indian Wells Masters in Indian Wells.

Carreno Busta has reached the quarter-finals twice in four prior appearances in Bastad, and he will try to make that three from five in a second-round clash with countryman Albert Ramos-Vinolas or Argentine qualifier Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

( With inputs from ANI )