Denis Shapovalov made his come-back with a 6-1 6-3 win over Hugo Gaston in 67 minutes at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier. Shapovalov missed the second half of the 2023 season due to a knee injury.
Shapovalov hit 11 aces and won 92% of his first serve points. The Canadian player is making his third appearance at the Montpellier tournament after reaching the quarter final in 2019.
Shapovalov broke three times to wrap up the first set 6-1 on his second set point. He broke in the fourth game of second set and sealed the second set 6-3 on his first match.
Shapovalov set up a match against Alexander Bublik.
Qualifier Pablo Llamas Ruiz upset French veteran Richard Gasquet 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 on his first ATP Tour on hard-court.
Gasquet broke serve in the second game of the first set to open up a 3-0 lead. Llamas Ruiz broke back in the seventh game and held serve in the seventh game to draw level to 4-4. Both players held on their next service games to set up a tie-break. Gasquet earned an early mini-break to open up a 4-1 lead. Llamas Ruiz won seven of the next nine points with two mini-breaks to clinch the tie-break 8-6.
Llamas Ruiz earned an early break to open up a 3-0 lead. Gasquet broke back in the fifth game to draw level to 3-3. Llamas Ruiz broke again in the 12th game to win the win the second set 7-5.
French 21-year-old Arthur Cazaux cruised past Maximilian Marterer 6-1 6-3 in 1 hour and 24 minutes with two breaks in each set. Cazaux, who beat three top 35 players including a win over Holger Rune en route to the fourth round at the Australian Open, won 85% of his first service points.
Harold Mayot beat Lucas Pouille 6-4 7.5 to score his first ATP Tour level win of the season.
Gregoire Barrère came back from one set down to beat Ugo Blanchet 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 6-2. Alexandre Muller overcame qualAntoine Escoffier 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.
