Rafa thrills in virtual Madrid

Claycourt king Rafa Nadal suffered a fake injury, several players 'froze' and one match vanished into thin air as the Virtual Madrid Open made its debut on Monday.

With professional tennis tours closed down until mid July because of the coronavirus pandemic, an esports version of the event is being staged online.

Thirty two of the world's best players have swapped their rackets for Playstation controllers, courts for sofas, to contest the four-day event designed to offer players, and fans, some action during the lockdown.

Nadal claimed he was a computer game novice during an Instagram chat with Andy Murray last week, but the Spaniard showed impressive fingerwork to beat young Canadian Denis Shapovalov in his opening round-robin match on a digital representation of the Spanish capital's Manolo Santana Stadium.

Things did not start very well, however, with Nadal and Shapovalov, shown in small screens below the game action being broadcast live on Facebook Gaming, sitting frustrated as their computer characters were left bobbing around on the baseline as the game appeared to malfunction.

Andy Murray, tipped a favourite, got into the spirit of things -- grunting loudly after every 'virtual' shot as he beat Frenchman Benoit Paire.