Marseille, France
Australia's Matt Ebden survived a tough test from French wildcard Benjamin Bonzi to progress to the second round of the Open Provence 13 in Marseille.
Ebden recovered from a set and a break deficit to defeat Bonzi 3-6 7-6(6) 6-3 in two hours and 27 minutes.
Bonzi in fact served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, the Australian fighting back to force a tiebreak. While the Frenchman saved three set points, Ebden was able to level.
With break of the Bonzi serve in the third and ninth games of the 32-minute third set, the Australian comfortably completed his victory.
Withstanding 10 aces from his world No.127 opponent, Ebden converted three of his 11 break point opportunities and saved four of six break points on his own serve.
A qualifier at the ATP 250 tournament, Ebden next faces world No.87 Emil Ruusuvuori. The Finnish player advanced when Kei Nishikori retired with injury in their first round.
Ebden is projected to returned to the top 260 in the singles rankings with his latest victory.
Results:
Men's singles, first round
[Q] Matthew Ebden (AUS) d [W] Benjamin Bonzi (FRA) 3-6 7-6(6) 6-3
Coming up:
Men's singles, second round
[Q] Matthew Ebden (AUS) v Emil Ruusuvuori (FIN)
Men's doubles, main draw first round
Matthew Ebden (AUS)/Matt Reid (AUS) v Andrey Golubev (KAZ)/Hugo Nys (MON)
Doha, Qatar
Chris O'Connell was eliminated from the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, after a straight-sets loss to Vasek Pospisil.
The world No.87 Canadian defeated O'Connell 6-3 6-4 in an hour and 24 minutes.
O'Connell was a qualifier at the ATP 250 tournament,
John Millman recorded a win in doubles, teaming with Spaniard David Vega Hernandez to eliminate Blaz Rola and Mousa Shana Zayed.
The Australian-Spanish duo face Marcus Daniell and Philipp Oswald, from New Zealand and Austria respectively, in the second round.
Results:
Men's singles, first round
Vasek Pospisil (CAN) d [Q] Chris O'Connell (AUS) 6-3 6-4
Men's doubles, first round
John Millman (AUS)/David Vega Hernandez (ESP) d [WC] Blaz Rola (SLO)/Mousa Shana Zayed (QAT) 6-1 6-e
Coming up:
Men's doubles, second round
John Millman (AUS)/David Vega Hernandez (ESP) v Marcus Daniell (NZL)/Philipp Oswald (AUT)