Seventh seed Gilles Simon began his quest for a third Open 13 Marseille title with a fighting 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Karen Khachanov on Monday.
The Frenchman started play with a 21-8 record in Marseille, having lifted the trophy in 2007 (d. Baghdatis) and 2015 (d. Monfils).
#NextGenATP star Khachanov clinched the only break to take the opening set. Simon served at 5-3 but couldn’t level the match. However at 5-5 the World No. 23 broke again to force a decider.
A pivotal break for 3-1 enabled the two-time champion to reach the second-round, where he will face a wild card in Julien Benneteau or Denis Shapovalov. In the doubles Benneteau, teamed with doubles World No. 1 Nicolas Mahut to reach the quarter-finals courtesy of a narrow 6-7(6), 6-3, 11-9 victory against Jurgen Melzer and Lucas Pouille.
[ALSO LIKE]
World No. 47 Malek Jaziri earned a second-round match with defending champion Nick Kyrgios following a 6-3, 6-3 win over Andrey Kuznetsov. Kyrgios prevailed in straight sets in their only previous meeting at the Australian Open 2015.
Russian veteran Mikhail Youzhny was also forced to go the distance in a 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 win over #NextGenATP wild card Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The top four seeds in qualifying all booked their place in the main draw. Sergiy Stakhovsky, Andrey Rublev, Evgeny Donskoy and Norbert Gombos are now all in contention in Marseille.