First ranked Novak Djokovic opened his Swiss Indoors Basel campaign with a Halloween mask on his face. But then he survived a scare himself against talented Belgian Xavier Malisse 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.

Djokovic put forth, "Every year for the last five years it’s a tradition at Halloween, which usually is during Paris-Bercy, that I go out with some crazy mask. This year it happened one week earlier, so I hope that people don’t mind. It was just tradition and a little bit of fun.

He then added, "I was communicating with my fans on Facebook and Twitter the last couple of days and they told me to go for it, so I went for it. It was sitting on the chair next to me and it was watching me all through the match. It was scary."

Djokovic won the first set with two breaks of serve, but came under pressure in the second. He double-faulted to relinquish a break in the ninth game and Malisse seized his opportunity to draw level.

Seeded on the top, the Serbian got his game on track, obtaining a 3-0 lead at the start of the first set. He had to just hold serve at 5-4, but then committed a double fault on the fifth break point of the game. Malisse then suffered defeat with a little support from his own share of errors he sprayed out of court in his service game only to concede the win to Djokovic after two hours and 12 minutes.

Djokovic admitted, "I hoped that we would not get to the tie-break. It’s really unpredictable in the third set tie-break who’s going to win. He made a couple of mistakes. I made some returns in. Overall, it wasn’t a great match for me. I played many, many better matches this year than this one, but under the circumstances, for me the most important thing now is that I feel good on the court physically.”

Seeded players, Tomas Berdych and Mardy Fish, both popped out of the first round. The fourth-seeded Berdych gave up at 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to Japanese Kei Nishikori and then turned out to be the highest-ranked Japanese player in history. He has scored a Top 10 victory for a second straight tournament, having also defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Shanghai.

Nishikori said, "I’m really happy the way I played today. It was a slow start for me, but getting rhythm in the second set and playing really well in the third, so I’m really happy.

Fifth seeded Fish retired due to a left hamstring injury after one game of his match against fellow American James Blake.

Berdych and Fish respectively have gripped on to number 6 and number 8 spots in the 2011 ATP Year-To-Date Rankings and will be looking to keep their places in the Top 8 at the conclusion of the regular season next week in Paris.

Stanislas Wawrinka gave something to cheer about to the Swiss supporters by outclassing Croatian Ivan Dodig 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and seventeen minutes. Fin Jarkko Nieminen progressed to the second-round date with four-time champion Roger Federer after getting past Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 within two hours and six minutes. Nieminen has lost to the Swiss in all 11 of their previous meetings.

Michael Lammer stunned Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 6-3 and Croatian Ivan Ljubicic made the most of two of his three break points in a 7-5, 6-4 win over Michael Llodra from France.