Grigor Dimitrov came from behind to beat French qualifier Pierre Hugues Herbert 3-6 6-2 6-4 in one hour and 50 minutes reaching the third round at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.
Herbert dropped four points on serve in the first set and went up a double break to win the opening set. The Frenchman got an early break in the third game, when Dimitrov sent a forehand long.
Herbert sealed the first set with a deep return in the ninth game to close out the first set.
Dimitrov bounced back by breaking serve in the fifth and seventh games to win the second set 6-2. Dimitrov earned break points in three consecutive games. Herbert held his serve in the third game but dropped his serve in the fifth game when he netted his backhand. Dimitrov earned a double break in the sixth game to open up a 4-2 lead and wrapped up the second set with a forehand winner.
Dimitrov got the first break of the decisive set in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Herbert broke straight back in the next game, when Dimitrov sent a forehand long. The Bulgarian player broke again in the seventh game and dropped just two points in his next two service games to close out the match setting up a third round clash against either last year’s finalist Albert Ramos Vinolas or Phillip Kohlschreiber.
Fernando Verdasco also came back from one set down to beat Pablo Cuevas 5-7 7-6 (7-4) 6-1 after two hours and 50 minutes. The Spanish did not convert two set points at 5-2 in the first set. Cuevas won five games in a row with two breaks in the ninth and eleventh games to win the first set.
Verdasco saved three match points at 3-5 and broke back in the 10th game to draw level to 5-5. After a trade of breaks bot players set up a tie-break. Verdasco rallied from 2-3 down to win the tie-break 7-4. Verdasco broke three times in the first, fifth and seventh games to win the third set 6-1.
Andreas Seppi beat last week’s Marrakesh finalist Kyle Edmund 6-3 5-7 6-2. Edmund converted just two of his eleven break points. Both players fended off break points in their opening service games before Seppi reeled off four straight games to race out to a 5-1 lead. Edmund pulled one break back in the seventh game at love for 2-5 but Seppi held his final service game at 15 to close out the first set in 33 minutes.
Edmund converted his six break point of the second set in the 12th game, when Seppi netted a backhand. Edmund saved three break points in the first game of the third set, but Seppi reeled off the next three games with a break in the third game. The Italian earned another break in the seventh game at 30 to close out the match.
Misha Zverev came back from one set down to beat Lucas Pouille 2-6 6-1 7-6 (7-3). Pouille broke twice in the third and seventh games to win the first set 6-2. Zverev bounced back by getting a double break in the second and fourth games to win the second set 6-1 to force the match to the third set. In the decider Misha hit a backhand long to drop his serve at 2-3 30-40, but broke straight back at love in the next game. Zverev opened up a 4-1 en route to winning the decisive tie-break 7-3.
Fabio Fognini beat Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka 6-4 7-5 in one hour and 26 minutes to reach the second round.
The Italian player got an early break at love and held his service game to open up a 2-0 lead in the first set. Ivashka broke back in the fourth game to draw level to 2-2, when Fognini made a forehand error. Fognini took another break lead at love in the fifth game, but Ivashka broke straight back to draw level to 3-3. After two holds of serve Fognini got the break in the ninth game with an inside-in forehand and two inside-out forehands before serving out for the first set at 30 in the next game.
Ivashka got an early break in the second game to open up a 2-0 after Fognini made two double faults. The player from Belarus won 12 of the next 14 points to open up a 3-0 lead. Fognini got his first game of the second set on the scoreboard for 1-3 and earned his first break point of the set, but he failed to convert it. Fognini rallied from 2-5 down by winning five consecutive games with two breaks in the ninth and eleventh games to seal the win setting up a second round match against Jan-Lennard Struff.
