Indian Wells, USA, 9 March 2013 | tennis.com.au

Aussies Marinko Matosevic and Matt Ebden both enjoyed wins in the opening round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells on Friday.

Matosevic brushed aside former world No.5 Tommy Robredo 7-5 6-2 in less than 90 minutes on Stadium 3 to secure a second-round meeting with No.14 seed Juan Monaco.

Although Robredo once held a lofty stature in the men’s game, the Spaniard is now ranked world No.69 and required a wildcard to enter the main draw.

And Matosevic was quick to remind the 30-year-old who the higher-ranked player now was, posting solid serving statistics and breaking serve five times on his way to the straight-set victory.

At the same time across on Court 6, Matosevic’s compatriot Ebden was locked in a three-set battle with Russian Andrey Kuznetsov, a player ranked almost 50 places above him.

But Ebden, a qualifier, held a slight advantage on the stats sheet on serve in an evenly-matched contest.

The Western Australian overcame the loss of the second set to win 6-3 4-6 6-4 in one hour and 52 minutes.

He will next face No.31 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.

In action on Saturday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden will be Aussie big guns Sam Stosur and Lleyton Hewitt – playing first and second up on Stadium 1 against Madison Keys and John Isner respectively – while Bernard Tomic will play later in the day on Stadium 2 against 10th seed Richard Gasquet.