Kyle Edmund made to work for his victory at the Italian Open
Kyle Edmund booked his place in the second round of the Italian Open with a hard-fought win over Malek Jaziri.
Fresh from reaching the quarter-finals in the Madrid Open and rising to a career-high 19th in the ATP rankings, Edmund needed two hours and four minutes to beat the Tunisian 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
The British No 1 will face either 16th seed Lucas Pouille or Italian wildcard Andreas Seppi in the second round.
Italian Fabio Fognini claimed his 300th ATP win as he secured an easy 6-3, 6-1 win over Frenchman Gael Monfils.
A truly sublime performance from @fabiofogna! ??
He becomes just the fourth ???? man in Open Era history to claim 300 ATP wins with a 6-3 6-1 triumph. #ibi18 pic.twitter.com/XRrNVzN2Z0
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 14, 2018
It was a good day for Italy as Matteo Berrettini beat NextGen star Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 7-6 (7-1) to set up a second-round clash against Alexander Zverev while Marco Cecchinato beat Pablo Cuevas 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Benoit Paire came out on top in an all-French tussle as he beat Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-4 while Dutchman Robin Haase secured a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Daniil Medvedev from Russia.
