Gilles Simon had an unhappy return to the ATP World Tour as he crashed out in the first round of the Open 13 in Marseille.
The Frenchman was playing in his first tournament of the year after recovering from a knee injury he aggravated in November.
Fifth seed Simon, who spent much of last year ranked in the top 10 but is now down at 16th, had a tough opener against Olivier Rochus and the Belgian proved too strong, coming through 7-5 6-2.
The French home fans were able to celebrate three victories today, though, with lucky loser Josselin Ouanna leading the way.
The 23-year-old, who beat Marat Safin at last year's French Open, took advantage of his second chance courtesy of Christophe Rochus' back injury to beat Denis Istomin 6-4 1-6 6-3.
Ouanna next faces second seed and defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who received a bye in the first round.
Eighth seed Julien Benneteau needed two tie-breaks to see off Swiss qualifier Stephane Bohli 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/3) while last year's runner-up, Michael Llodra, dropped the first set before recovering to beat countryman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-7 (5/7) 6-3 6-4.
There was disappointment for France's Arnaud Clement, though, after he was beaten 7-6 (7/2) 7-5 by Andreas Seppi of Italy in the late match.
In other results, Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky defeated Simone Bolelli of Italy 6-3 3-6 6-4 while lucky loser Illya Marchenko was a 4-6 6-3 6-2 winner over qualifier Ruben Bemelmans.
No comments:
Post a Comment