Montanes claims upset win in Stuttgart

STUTTGART, Germany, July 11 (UPI) -- Defending champion Albert Montanes ousted fourth-seeded Gilles Simon in first-round play Monday at the Mercedes Cup tennis tournament in Germany.

Montanes rallied for a 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 victory over Simon. He appeared to wear Simon down in the third set, taking 58 percent of the points in that set compared to 48 percent the rest of the match.

Simon dropped serve six times, including three games in the final set.

No. 8-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez rolled by Radek Stepanek 6-1, 6-3 without losing his serve. He established control of the match in the first set when he lost seven points on serve and didn't face a break point.

Monday's other result saw Sergiy Stakhovsky edge Jaroslav Pospisil 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) in a match that took 2 hours, 40 minutes. Stakhovsky had eight aces, half of which cane in the final set, and won 73 percent of the points on serve.