MARSEILLE, France, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Fabrice Santoro of France was among a handful of unseeded players who advanced Tuesday to the second round at Marseille Open.
Santoro, the 1999 champion here, fought off three match points in the final set tiebreaker before defeating Sargis Sargisian, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (13-11).
The French fans had pmore to cheer about Tuesday as Nicolas Escude, Julien Boutter and Arnaud Clement also advanced to the second round
Escude moved on with a with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Nikolay Davydenko of Russia. Boutter bested Jan Vacek of the Czech Republic, 7-6 (7-1), 1-6, 6-1, and Clement disposed of American Jeff Tarango, 6-4, 6-3.
In other matches involving unseeded players Tuesday, Andrei Stoliarov of Russia defeated Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5); Marc Rosset of Switzerland got by Frenchman Thierry Ascione, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-1); and French qualifier Gregory Carraz disposed of Renzo Furlan of Italy, 6-3, 6-3.
