Nicolas Mahut began his 12th Open 13 Provence campaign with a win on Wednesday, beating #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5, 7-6(4).
The Frenchman, who has reached the quarter-finals on two occasions in Marseille (2008, 2014), dropped just three points behind his serve in the 86-minute encounter to set up a second-round meeting with sixth seed Gilles Muller.
The 36-year-old came in to the tournament having lifted the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament doubles title last week in Rotterdam, and spoke of the benefits of arriving to this week’s event in good form. “[I am] happy with my level today,” said Mahut. “We won the doubles in Rotterdam so I got here with a good rhythm. I'm 17 years older than Stefanos (Tsitsipas) which is quite a lot. He will be a dangerous player in the next few years.”
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Luxembourg’s Muller set up the last 16 meeting with Mahut after firing 15 aces en route to a 7-5, 6-3 win over lucky loser Sergiy Stakhovsky. Stakhovsky came into the match having won their only previous FedEx ATP Head2Head encounter at the Winston-Salem Open in 2012, but the 34-year-old proved too strong, saving all seven break points he faced to set up the clash with Mahut
After saving four match points in his opening match on Monday, seventh seed Damir Dzumhur fought back from 0/5 down in a third-set tie-break to beat Italy’s Thomas Fabbiano 6-7(5), 7-6(7), 7-6(5). The 25-year-old won seven consecutive points to end the match, becoming the first man in the draw to reach the quarter-finalsreadfullarticle
