Sixth seeded Florian Mayer beat Gilles Muller 7-6(3), 6-3 in the first round of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier on Monday.

The German got past 15 aces from Muller, and fended off all seven break points he came across to progress within 80 minutes of play.

World number 21, Mayer got control of his first ATP World Tour title last year at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest. Former World number three Nikolay Davydenko rolled in his opener, dismissing Stephane Robert 6-2, 6-1 in almost an hour.

Robert bagged 100% of his first serve points against wild card entrant Davydenko who cashed in on his second serve return, taking 79 per cent of those points to break the Frenchman five times. The Russian withered off a four-match losing streak since a quarter-final defeat in Valencia last November.

French wild card Guillaume Rufin recorded his first tour-level match win in eight months as he edged passed Canadian Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 7-6(6) in just under two hours. Pospisil clobbered 11 aces, but Rufin maintained composure and tasted tour-level victory for the first time since defeating Adrian Mannarino at Roland Garros in May 2011.