World number 7 and top seed David Goffin beat Gilles Simon 6-4 6-2 after 1 hour and 23 minutes at the Open de Sud France in Montpellier to score his second win in his four head-to-head matches against the French player.
Simon did not fully recover from the 2-hour and a half-hour match against Yannick Maden and struggled on his serve facing 12 break points.
Both players earned a total of 12 break points in the first set and there were six breaks in ten games. Simon saved two break points in the opening game and got an early break in the second game after a 17-stroke rally, when Goffin made a backhand error. Goffin broke straight back in the third game. The Belgian player got another break in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. The next games were marked by five consecutive breaks. Simon earned three breaks to claw his way back to 4-4. Goffin earned another break to take a 5-4 lead and held serve in the 10th game at deuce to seal the opening set 6-4.
Goffin broke serve for the fifth consecutive time at the start of the second set. Simon earned a break point in the sixth game but Goffin fended it off with a smash winner. The Belgian player sealed the win with another break in the seventh game to race out to a 5-2 lead. He served out for the match with three service winners. Goffin will face either Karen Khachanov or Rikardas Berankis.
Andrey Rublev saved all the three break points and converted four of his five break points to cruise past Jeremy Chardy 6-2 6-1 in just 61 minutes. The Russian Next Gen player will face either Nicolas Mahut or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who will meet in an all-French head-to-head match. Mahut reached the second round, after Dustin Brown was forced to withdraw from the match due to a back injury, when he was just three points away from the win at 7-6 (7-2) 5-2.
Richard Gasquet broke five times (three in the first set and twice in the second) to ease past Danil Medvedev 6-0 6-3.
John Millman fought back from one set down to beat Yuichi Sugita 5-7 6-3 6-4 to secure his spot in the second round against Benoit Paire.
Ruben Bemelmans cruised past French wild-card Calvin Hemery 6-1 6-2 in just 49 minutes.
