Fifth seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia made a winning start to his Open de Nice Côte d’Azur campaign on Tuesday with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Slovakian Lukas Lacko. The Australian converted four out of six break points to earn this victory in 65 minutes.

The Australian is at a career-high ranking of World No. 28 in the ATP Rankings and he has a decent 18-11 win-loss record for the season so far. In the next round, Tomic will take on Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin, who beat American qualifier Sam Querrey in straight sets with a 6-2, 7-5 scoreline in 80 minutes.

In another exciting encounter, former World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain saved a match point to rally past sixth-seeded Dutchman Robin Haase 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(6) in two hours and 32 minutes. Denis Istomin also earned a hard-fought victory over the Colombian Alejandro Falla 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-1 in two hours and 24 minutes.

Bulgarian qualifier Grigor Dimitrov will meet No. 2 seed Gilles Simon in the second-round. Dimitrov beat Israel’s Dudi Sela 7-5, 6-1. Belgium’s Xavier Malisse will take on top seed John Isner in the second-round. Malisse earned a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Yen-Hsun Lu.

American qualifier Brian Baker, who was playing in his career-first ATP World Tour clay-court tournament, beat Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-5.