• ATP Tour

Rochus upsets Simon in Marseille

ESPN staff
February 16, 2010
Julien Benneteau is enjoying playing in front of a home crowd © Getty Images
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Olivier Rochus upset fifth seed Gilles Simon in the first round of the Open 13 in Marseille.

In his first match since returning from a knee injury last November, Simon struggled with his serve, hitting three double faults and was broken five times by the Belgian.

Eighth seed Julien Benneteau came through a tricky tie with Switzerland's Stephane Bohli to reach the second round. The world No. 39, playing a player ranked more than 100 places below him, was unable to break his opponent's serve, but managed to win both tie-breaks to win 7-6(5) 7-6(3). The Frenchman will now face compatriot Florent Serra in round two.

Sergiy Stakhovsky will meet top seed Roger Soderling in the second round after victory over Italian Simone Bolelli 6-3 3-6 6-4.

Michael Llodra beat qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-7(5) 6-3 6-4 to move through to the second round where he will meet seventh seed Marcos Baghdatis, while Josselin Ouanna's reward for his 6-4 1-6 6-3 victory over Denis Istomin is a meeting with defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The other players to progress were Andreas Seppi and Illya Marchenko, who beat local favourite Arnaud Clement and Ruben Bemelmans respectively.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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