Gilles Simon wins opening match in Marseilles

Gilles Simon of France, a two-time champion at the Open 13, rallied to beat Karen Khachanov of Russia 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 on Monday in the first round of this year's Open 13 in Marseilles, France.

"It was a good level for a Monday," Simon said.

The seventh-seeded Simon, who won the first of 12 career titles in Marseilles 10 years ago, will play a second-round match against either Julien Benneteau of France or 17-year-old Canadian Denis Shapovalov.

Mikhail Youzhny of Russia also reached the second round by beating 18-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas, a Greek player ranked 205th, by a score of 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

Youzhny broke Tsitsipas' serve five times. Youzhny's next opponent will be either sixth-seeded Richard Gasquet of France or Robin Haase of the Netherlands.

In the only other first-round match played Monday, 47th-ranked Malek Jaziri of Tunisia eliminated 61st-ranked Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia, 6-3, 6-3.

No top-10 players are participating in this event, but six top-20 players are entered. Gael Monfils of France is the top seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, who is coming off a victory in last week's ATP event in Rotterdam, Netherlands, is the second seed, and Nick Kyrgios of Australia, who will face Jaziri in his first match after a first-round bye, is the third seed after winning this event last year.