Uladzimir Ignatik may have stormed to the title in Rennes last week, but the Belorussian came undone in the opening round in Quimper. Ignatik came through qualifying to win the Rennes title, but instead he was beaten by a qualifier himself as Gleb Sakharov, ranked n0.287, scored a famous 63 63 win.
There were other shocks as sixth seed Vincent Millot also fell to a qualifier in the form of Aslan Karatsev, Karatsev the winner 63 64. Less of a shock was Teymuraz Gabashvili’s win over fourth seed Evgeny Donskoy, as the experienced Russian defeated his compatriot 75 63.
The top seed Adrian Mannarino had few problems in his first round match with French wildcard Evan Furness, winning 63 75 and saving all five break points he faced. Fifth seed Julien Benneteau also beat an eighteen year-old French wildcard, defeating Geoffrey Blancaneaux 62 64. Like Mannarino Benneteau’s serve was not broken, and the veteran served eleven aces for the win.
Third seed Sergiy Stakhovsky survived a scare against Calvin Hemery, but persevered and eventually progressed 76 46 62 in a match that finished five minutes short of two hours. Eighth seed Peter Gojowcyzk, in his first match since retiring with injury in the second round of Australian Open qualifying against Marco Trungelliti, defeated Maxime Hamou 62 64.
There were also wins for Enrique Lopez-Perez, Hugo Nys, and Tristan Lamasine respectively in other matches.
Final first round matches, including Stefanos Tsitsipas against seventh seed Andrey Rublev and Mathias Bourgue against second seed Jeremy Chardy will take place on Wednesday.
