Richard Gasquet, Lucas Pouille and Joao Sousa moved into the second round on day two of the Mutua Madrid Open.

Gasquet, the No. 10 seed, was flawless on serve in his opening match against local favourite Roberto Carballes Baena, saving all three break points against him to prevail in one hour and 47 minutes 6-1, 7-6(5). The Frenchman will next renew his rivalry with wild card Fernando Verdasco in the second round. Verdasco currently leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head by 8-7.

Pouille, a qualifier, continued his outstanding clay court season by recording one of the biggest wins of his career over No. 12 seed David Goffin, saving four match points to prevail in their epic battle 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-6(7). Pouille saved three match points while serving at 4-5 in the final set, then saved another match point down 6-7 in the final set tie-break with a backhand winner. He converted on his second match point opportunity and dropped to his knees in celebration. Pouille will now play the winner of the match between Sam Querrey and qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Sousa only needed one break point opportunity in each set of his match against Nicolas Mahut, grabbing the lone break in each set to comfortably advance 6-4, 6-4. The Portuguese also landed 78 per cent of first serves and saved each of the six break points that he faced in the match, all of which came in the opening set. Next up for Sousa is lucky loser Marcel Granollers, who made his way into the draw due to the withdrawal of Roger Federer. Sousa leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head by 2-1.

Upon lifting his second ATP Challenger Tour trophy in Savannah one week ago, Bjorn Fratangelo echoed the sentiments of all players on the circuit: “Hopefully, I won’t be back here next year.”

No disrespect intended, just the reality of life on the circuit. Players battle against world-class competition with the hope of ascending the Emirates ATP Rankings and realising their dreams on the ATP World Tour. The piece of silverware in Fratangelo’s hands was the reward for not just one strong week, but rather months, if not years, of hard work.

The 22-year-old American had made 33 Challenger appearances before stepping into the spotlight for the first time at the tour-level last year, making his debut at the Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati. The moment of contesting a first ATP World Tour event is filled with elation; it’s the goal of every player who fights to make a living in professional tennis. But, for players who return to the Challenger level in the coming weeks, it can be fleeting, leaving another, even bigger, target to strive for.

“It’s a little different, I’m one of the hunted ones now in Challengers,” said Fratangelo, who claimed his first ATP World Tour match win last month in Indian Wells, also snatching a set off World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. “It’s the beauty of tennis. No week is going to be the same. It can be tough in terms of the atmosphere of the tournament and the hustle and bustle. You come back down to a smaller Challenger that’s more laid back with not as many people and you have to refocus.”

Frances Tiafoe, a member of the ATP’s Next Generation, made his ATP World Tour debut in Washington in 2014 – nearly one year prior to competing in his first ATP Challenger Tour main draw in Sarasota. The taste of tennis at the highest level gave the 18-year-old added incentive to fight even harder for another bite.

“I had a bunch of good weeks here last year so it makes me feel good,” said Tiafoe. “It’s another chance to build your ranking and another chance to keep improving.”

In the past year, Tiafoe has competed in a Challenger the week after contesting a tour-level event on four occasions. Just one month removed from attaining a career-high No. 167 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, after notching his first match win at the Masters 1000 level in Indian Wells, the #NextGen star reached his third Challenger final last week in Tallahassee. Not fazed by the constant state of transition, Tiafoe understands that it’s all part of the process.

“That result (in Indian Wells) meant a lot to me and then losing to (David) Goffin 7-6 in the third was big. I was playing great tennis there, but it’s a whole different game here. You have a great result like that and you become more of a target on the Challenger Tour. They are going to come after you and every match you have to play your hardest. There are no easy matches.”

While Fratangelo and Tiafoe had little trouble adapting, a monumental result on the ATP World Tour can often yield significant growing pains in the months to come, as expectations grow. In 2016, Gerald Melzer has exploded out of the gates on the Challenger circuit, setting the pace with a 24-5 mark and three titles. On the precipice of cracking the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, the Austrian has come a long way since surging onto the scene with a stunning run to the semi-finals at the ATP World Tour event in Munich exactly one year ago. He had won five matches in seven days as a qualifier, including an emotional three-set victory over countryman and current World No. 15 Dominic Thiem.

But with sudden success comes mounting pressure and Melzer admits he struggled thereafter, winning a combined eight matches from 10 Challenger events the rest of the season. It was all a learning experience.

“Munich was my biggest result ever, and after that I felt I could go for it as I didn’t have anything to defend for the rest of the summer,” said Melzer. “But the expectations were higher than they should have been. I felt more pressure to win more matches and get to the Top 100. I learned a lot from the last year and it’s helping me take the next step in my career.

“I wasn’t too confident at the beginning of the year, but then I started winning and round-by-round I was feeling better. I won almost all my three-set matches. Now I feel that if I hang in the match and do my best, I will always have a chance to win. All of a sudden I won three of my first six tournaments. I’m more than happy with that.”

Fratangelo looks at his breakthrough success on the ATP World Tour as a turning point in his career. The Pittsburgh native would go on to claim the USTA’s wild card into Roland Garros with a dominant run on the green clay in Sarasota and Savannah. He says the transition is different than anything he’d previously experienced, but stresses that it instilled a critical sense of clarity and confidence in his game.

“I learned a lot from those two weeks. Even just from the Djokovic match. How disciplined I was. It took a lot of mental effort to stay with him. If I was going to have any chance I had to be more disciplined in my shot selection. I couldn’t do the normal things I do and I now know that I can use that at this level.

“Can I play better? Of course. I’ve proven that. You take the opportunities as they present themselves, which I did. Wins are wins, no matter what level they are at.”

Roger Federer has withdrawn from the Mutua Madrid Open because of a back injury, the World No. 3 announced on Monday. The Swiss was scheduled to play on Wednesday in just his second tournament back since undergoing knee surgery in February.

“Sorry to the tournament for coming and leaving without playing,” Federer said. “I arrived and I was okay, and then I practised on Saturday and hurt my back a little bit in practice and then stopped early.”

The three-time Madrid champion said he was scheduled to practice for two hours but had to quit after one hour and 15 minutes. He skipped practice altogether on Sunday and Monday. “At this point I don’t want to take more chances as I know I’m not going to be fully ready for Wednesday,” he said.

Federer has struggled with injuries this season. He underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus on 3 February and was scheduled to return at the Miami Open presented by Itau in March. But the all-time great had to withdraw from the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament because of a stomach virus. Instead, he returned to tour-level action last month at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, making the quarter-finals.

Federer had hoped to continue his clay-court season at Madrid. He even rearranged his schedule to play at the season’s fourth Masters 1000 tournament. “I’m very disappointed, to say the least. I was hoping to play,” he said. “This is not really what I wanted to do, come here and do a press conference about pulling out.”

He took some solace in that his back was bothering him and not his left knee. The 24-time Masters 1000 champion has endured back pain in recent years. “This is normal back things I’ve had in the past, which I guess is good because I know how to handle it. I know how long it can take. Sometimes it can vary by a few days here or there,” he said.

Federer hopes to be ready for next week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia, another Masters 1000 tournament on clay. “It’s been a tough year,” he said, “so I hope it gets better from here.”

There are 11 main draw singles matches and one doubles match on Monday’s schedule, with four Spaniards in action at La Caja Mágica, including No. 9 seed David Ferrer, one of five seeds in action along with No. 10 Richard Gasquet, No. 11 Milos Raonic, No. 12 David Goffin and No. 16 Gilles Simon.

Madrid native Feliciano Lopez opens the day’s action on Manolo Santana, in a rematch with Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer who ousted the left-hander in the second round a year ago. Lopez is the only player in the tournament’s 15-year history to participate in every singles draw (since 2002) and has an 18-14 career record in his hometown tournament, reaching the QFs four times (2003, ‘07-08 and ’14). After withdrawing from Houston and Barcelona with shoulder tenditinis, Mayer opened his European clay court campaign with a run to the Estoril quarters, where he lost to eventual champion Nicolas Almagro.

Two-time semi-finalist Ferrer, one of three Spaniards making his 14^th consecutive appearance here (along with Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco), faces compatriot Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the final match on Madrid’s main show court. This is the third year in succession that Garcia-Lopez has faced a fellow Spaniard in the first round in Madrid. Last year he lost in three sets to Verdasco – which, like this year’s match-up with Ferrer, was the only all-Spanish first-round showdown in the draw – while in 2014 he beat Pablo Andujar.

A quartet of Frenchmen are also in action on Monday, led by No. 10 seed Gasquet who faces qualifier and main-draw debutant Roberto Carballes Baena. All four of the Spaniard’s match wins in 2016 have come on clay, including last week’s first-round win at Istanbul (d. Ilhan) – his first ATP Tour-level match win since February’s run to the Sao Paulo quarters (l. to Carreno Busta). Gilles Simon, the No. 16 seed who reached the final here when the tournament was a hard-court event in 2008 (l. to Murray), takes on Marcos Baghdatis, back in Madrid for the first time since 2013 and looking for his 300^th ATP World Tour level match win (299-222 record). Qualifiers Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Lucas Pouille also make their Madrid main-draw debuts, with Herbert taking on Sam Querrey and Pouille up against No. 12 seed Goffin.

Back in the Top 10 Emirates ATP Rankings this week for the first time since October 2015, Raonic takes on Brazilian left-hander Thomaz Bellucci, who pushed him to two tie-break sets in their previous meeting in Shanghai last year. Raonic, the No. 11 seed, has a 22-20 career record against left-handers; this is his first match against a southpaw in 2016. Fellow Canadian Vasek Pospisil takes on 37-year-old qualifier Radek Stepanek to round out Monday’s action on Arantxa Sanchez.