Unfortunately for Fernando Verdasco, the Thailand Open is about tennis, not taking your shirt off.

After making the quarterfinals of the US Open, Verdasco was bounced in his first match Thursday in Thailand by German Benjamin Becker, 6-4, 6-4.

The man who beat him in New York showed no such signs of lapse. World No. 1 Rafael Nadal defeated Belgian Ruben Bemelmans 6-1, 6-4 in his first match of the tournament.

Both players have been very visible in Thailand, with Nadal visiting Buddhist monks and Verdasco showing off his boyhood martial arts moves. But the top-ranked player had no problems getting back in the swing of things. He produced winners on 24 of 26 first points and broke Bemelmans three times.

Verdasco wasn’t the only seeded player to go down on Thursday. Seventh-seeded Viktor Troicki fell to Finalnd’s Jarkko Nieminen, 7-6(4), 6-2.

At the Malaysian Open, four seeded players advanced, none needing more than two sets. Top seed Robin Soderling waxed Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-0, 6-1. Also cruising to straight-set wins were No. 3 seed Tomas Berdych, No. 5 seed David Ferrer and No. 8 seed Andrey Golubev.