This Sunday marked the start of the Open de Nice Côte d’Azur. The seventh edition promises to be exciting, with high-quality players participating and thrilling matches right from the first round.
Among the seeds, the highest-ranked and defending champion, Dominik Thiem (1), along with the French players Gilles Simon (2) and Benoit Paire (4), are exempt from the first round and will start their tournament in the round of 16. The Austrian might face last year’s finalist, the Argentine Leonardo Mayer, at that stage.
The third seed of this 2016 Open de Nice, Kevin Anderson, will also begin his tournament in the round of 16. The South African will face a tough challenge right from the start against Fernando Verdasco, a former world top 10 player, provided the latter wins against a qualifier in the first round.
The 21-year-old Briton Kyle Edmund, ranked 82nd in the world, was not caught off guard by the Italian Cecchinato and won in 2 sets, 6-3, 6-4.
Donald Young stays on course against the local favorite Mathias Bourgue. He eliminates the young Frenchman in 2 sets, 6-4, 7-5.
Diego Schwartzman swiftly wins his match 6-1, 6-2 against Zhyrmont.
The last qualifier of the day is the temperamental Russian Daniil Medvedev, who achieves a remarkable feat of two consecutive wins. This morning he completed his match against Lapentti (3-6, 7-6, 6-4) to then follow it with a fine victory against a very tough opponent, the talented Zhang. (3-6, 6-2, 7-6)
Two French players were involved, but only Adrian Mannarino managed to overcome Robin Haase in three sets after a long and fiercely contested battle. The talented left-hander opted for an extremely aggressive game plan, taking time away from his opponent and allowing him to finish at the net on several occasions.
As for the other Frenchman Mathias Bourgue, who competed in the final round of qualifiers, he was unable to make it into the main draw, falling to another left-hander with a vibrant game style, American Donald Young.
