NICE, France (AP) Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the first round of the Open de Nice on Tuesday.
The seventh-seeded Stakhovsky, a quarterfinalist at the warmup event for the French Open last year, broke his opponent's serve three times to set up a match against Robin Haase of the Netherlands. Haase defeated Yen-hsun Lu of Taiwan 6-3, 6-4.
Carlos Berlocq rallied to beat Austrian qualifier Andreas Haider-Maurer 5-7, 6-3, 6-0. The Argentine will play third-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain.