World number 45 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina edged past Marcos Giron 7-5 6-3 in 1 hour and 39 minutes on Court Rainier III at the ATP Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.
Giron earned his first break in the fourth game to open up a 4-1 lead. Davidovich Fokina broke back in the seventh game and held his service game to draw level to 4-4. Davidovich Fokina converted his third break in the 11th game to close out the first set 7-5.
Davidovich Fokina won six consecutive games from 0-3 down with three breaks of serve to seal the second set 6-3.
The Spanish player beat Alex De Minaur, Matteo Berrettini and Luca Pouille to reach the quarter final in last year’s edition of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.
Davidovich Fokina set up a second round against two-time tournament champion Novak Djokovic, who leads 2-0 in their previous head-to-head matches.
Grigor Dimitrov reached the second round after Nikoloz Basilasshvili was forced to withdraw from the match in the second set when the Bulgarian player was leading 6-3 2-0.
Dimitrov showed his good form recently when he reached the quarter final at Indian Wells.
The Bulgarian player will take on 2019 Monte-Carlo finalist Dusan Lajovic, who beat Filip Krajinovic 6-2 7-6 (7-4) in 1 hour and 45 minutes.Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics battled past Lloyd Harris 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 to secure his spot in the second round, where he will face either Denis Shapovalov or Karen Khachanov.
