MONTPELLIER, France – Feliciano Lopez beat Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (7) Tuesday to reach the second round of the Open Sud de France.
The fifth-seeded Spaniard finished with 19 aces, earning the only break of the match in the third game of the opening set. He then jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second-set tiebreaker.
Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland also advanced.
The seventh-seeded Kohlschreiber broke serve twice in each set to defeat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-1, 6-4. French qualifier Maxime Teixeira saved 11 break points but still lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to the eighth-seeded Nieminen, who won the Sydney International this month.
Flavio Cipolla of Italy, American veteran Michael Russell and Frenchmen Paul-Henri Mathieu, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Nicolas Mahut and Florent Serra also moved into the second round.
Cipolla rallied past Marc Gicquel of France 1-6, 6-4, 7-5, Russell dismissed Adrian Mannarino of France 6-3, 7-5, and Mathieu beat Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany 6-4, 6-4 to earn his first victory this year after missing the 2011 season because of a knee injury.
Roger-Vasselin downed Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain 7-5, 6-2, Serra ousted Tobias Kamke of Germany 6-3, 6-3, and Mahut was hardly troubled in his 6-3, 6-2 win over Albert Ramos of Spain.
