Defending champ Richard Gasquet survives, but no sweat for David Goffin

Shahida Jacobs
Richard Gasquet

Defending Libema Open champion Richard Gasquet somehow got himself out of trouble to keep his title defence alive with a three-set win over Aljaz Bedene.

Slovenia’s Bedene found himself a set up and was 5-5 in the second-set tie-breaker, but eighth seed Gasquet used all his experience to pull off a 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 win in two hours and 26 minutes.

Next up is Mikhail Kukushkin after the Kazak player beat Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Fifth seed David Goffin didn’t really have to get out of first gear as the Belgian required only 48 minutes to beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina from Spain 6-0, 6-2.

Pierre-Hugues Herbert is likely to put up a bigger fight in the second round as the Frenchman advanced with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Matthew Ebden from Australia.

Nicolas Jarry earned himself a clash against top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas as he beat Italian qualifier Jannick Sinner 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 while Andreas Seppi won the clash of the Italians as he beat Thomas Fabbiano 7-6 (12-10), 7-5.

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