Bjorn Fratangelo earned his best career win to date in taking down former No.6 Gilles Simon in the Budapest first round.
Fratangelo, a qualifier, had beaten Tobias Kamke and the inspired local wildcard Attila Balazs to reach the main draw though few would have given the No.150 much of a chance against the experienced veteran Simon. Yet Fratangelo defied all expectations to moved into the second round with a commanding 6-4, 6-1 win.
It is just Fratangelo’s second win at main draw ATP level this season, having defeated Bernard Tomic in straight sets at Indian Wells. Fratangelo qualified for the Australian Open, but lost to compatriot Noah Rubin in five sets. Despite the ranking upset Fratangelo does have history on clay. He is a former Roland Garros junior champion having taken the singles title with victory over Dominic Thiem in 2011.
Fratangelo will face Martin Klizan in the second round, after the Slovakian defeated Maximilian Marterer on Monday.
Marius Copil and Sergiy Stakhovsky both moved into the main draw after the withdrawals of Federico Delbonis and Adrian Mannarino. The paid suffered mixed emotions with Copil losing to qualifier Aljaz Bedene for the second time this week. Stakhovsky was the beneficiary of more good fortune as he moved into the second round when Florian Mayer was forced to retire.
Ryan Harrison, Borna Coric, Andrey Kuznetsov, and Mikhail Youzhny are amongst the other players in action on Tuesday.
