INDIAN WELLS, California (AFP) - Reigning champion Rafael Nadal, playing his first match in more than a month, reached the third round of the BNP Paribas Open Saturday with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Rainer Schuettler.

Nadal hadn’t played since retiring with a right knee injury while trailing Andy Murray by two sets in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January.

Nadal’s victory over Schuettler, in one hour and 34 minutes, offered little opportunity to gauge his game given the chilly, windy conditions that prevailed as darkness fell in the California desert.

“When I went to practice in the morning, it was perfect conditions,” Nadal said. “And when I went on court, the weather completely changed, so it was difficult to adapt.”

Nadal, who sped to a 5-1 lead with two breaks of serve in the opening set, then lost three games in a row before closing out the set.

He needed only one break of serve, in the seventh game, and didn't face a break point in the second frame as he closed out the match.

Nadal next faces Croatian Mario Ancic, a 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 winner over France's Julien Benneteau.

Ancic, a 2004 Wimbledon semi-finalist, missed most of last year after being diagnosed with mononucleosis that had first been diagnosed as a bad flu in 2008.

Serbian Novak Djokovic, seeded second behind Roger Federer in the first Masters 1000 tournament of 2010, was due to open his campaign in the night's finale against American Mardy Fish - the man Djokovic beat in the final here in 2008.

Among other seeded men advancing to the third round Saturday after all 32 enjoyed first-round byes, fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko defeated Latvia's Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 6-4.

The world number six from Russia needed one hour and 34 minutes to reach the third round with the win over Gulbis, the young Latvian who notched his first career ATP title last month at Delray Beach.

In the third round, the 28-year-old Davydenko will take on Serbian Viktor Troicki, who advanced when Pablo Cuevas retired with a back injury after one game.

Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ousted eighth-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic 7-6 (7/1), 6-0, but Spanish 10th seed Fernando Verdasco made it safely through.