American qualifier Bjorn Fratangelo claimed just his second career tour-level clay-court win on Tuesday as he upset fifth-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-1 in the first round of the Gazprom Hungarian Open in Budapest.
The 23-year-old Fratangelo sprung the upset in 79 minutes, breaking Simon four times from 11 opportunities and winning 75 per cent of his service points. The right-hander recorded his second tour-level win of the season as he set a second-round clash with Martin Klizan.
Frantangelo talks with the ATP World Tour last year about the Wimbledon host family experience
Another seed fell as Robin Haase ousted No. 8 Diego Schwartzman 6-1, 6-3. Schwartzman is at a career-high No. 34 in the Emirates ATP Rankings this week after reaching the quarter-finals last week in Monte-Carlo.
Next up for Haase is qualifier Aljaz Bedene, who continued his good run of form with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Marius Copil. Great Britain’s Bedene came into Budapest on the back of successive ATP Challenger Tour titles in Sophia Antipolis and Barletta.
Top seed Lucas Pouille will open his campaign against Jiri Vesely after the Czech defeated recent Marrakech titlist Borna Coric 7-6(4), 6-4 in the first round of this ATP World Tour 250 tournament, played in Hungary for the first time.
Andrey Kuznetsov will face third seed Fabio Fognini after edging Ryan Harrison 7-6(6), 6-3 in one hour and 33 minutes. Other first-round winners included Sergiy Stakhovsky and Marton Fucsovics.