Great Britain's Jack Draper advanced to the second round of the Adelaide International with a comfortable victory over fifth seed Sebastian Baez, but Katie Boulter suffered a first-round exit.
In his first ATP Tour match of the year, Draper - currently ranked 62nd in the world - stormed to a 6-1 6-3 win over Baez, while Boulter suffered a 3-6 4-6 defeat to lucky loser Ana Bogdan.
Draper's only previous meeting with Baez at the 2023 Monte Carlo Masters ended with the Briton prevailing in straight sets, and despite the 36-place chasm separating the two men in the ATP rankings, the 22-year-old proved a class above again.
Draper needed just 78 minutes to get the job done against his South American counterpart, hitting 17 winners compared to eight for Baez, who did not fashion a single break point throughout the contest.
A five-game winning streak saw Draper take the first set with ease, and thanks to a trio of winners, the British number four drew first blood in the third game of the second set too.
While serving to stay in the match, an unforced error from Baez gave Draper two chances to close out the contest, but the Argentine would do the rest for him, producing his first double fault of the encounter on match point.
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"I was very happy with my performance today. It is not easy coming out in the first match of the year," Draper said on the court after earning his first victory of 2024.
"I played here last year and am looking forward to going as far as I can this week. I feel really strong at the moment and really happy with my body and my game. Hopefully I can continue to play injury free."
The USA's MacKenzie McDonald or Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic will take on Draper in the last 16, but there was no such joy for British number one Boulter, who fell at the first hurdle in the Adelaide main draw.
The 27-year-old had beaten American duo Alycia Parks and Ashlyn Krueger in qualifying to set up a maiden WTA Tour meeting with Bogdan, who had lost her final preliminary match but earned a ticket to the first round as a lucky loser.
Boulter sits nine places higher than the Romanian in the world rankings, but her wasteful display left a lot to be desired as Bogdan advanced in one hour and 46 minutes, capitalising on four double faults from the British number one.
Boulter also failed to take 10 of the 11 break points she brought up on Bogdan's serve, missing all seven chances to do so in the opening set and letting a 2-0 lead slip in the second, in which she only landed 44% of her first serves.
Bogdan's reward will be a second-round clash with either Liudmila Samsonova or Laura Siegemund, who helped Germany win the United Cup title on Sunday with victory over Poland in the final.
Ben Knapton
