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Paire in easy ATP win in Montpellier

MONTPELLIER, France, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- No. 8-seeded Benoit Paire rolled to a first-round win Tuesday at the Open Sud de France ATP tournament.

Paire, playing in his native France, was on the court 44 minutes in a 6-0, 6-2 dismantling of Adrian Menendez-Maceiras. Paire won two-thirds of the points in the match and lost only seven over seven service games.

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He claimed 58 percent of the points when receiving serve and cashed in half of his 10 break opportunities.

Paul-Henri Mathieu, another Frenchman, was a late entrant into the Open Sud de Paris when top-seeded and defending champion Tomas Berdych withdrew with a wrist injury. But Mathieu's stay was short as Sergiy Stakhovsky ousted him 6-4, 6-4 behind three second-set breaks.

Overall, the French went 3-3 Tuesday with Gael Monfils beating Ruben Bemelmans 67-5, 6-4 and Victor Hanescu stopped Guillermo Olaso 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) to join Paire in the win column.

Florent Serra was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Jarkko Nieminen and Adrian Mannarino lost to Steve Darcis 6-4, 7-6 (7-0) and joined Mathieu among first-round losers.

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In the only match Tuesday not to involve a French player, Jan Hajek beat Dudi Sela 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.

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