Walk in the park for Gael Monfils in Sofia opener

Shahida Jacobs
Gael Monfils fist pump

Gael Monfils made light work of Viktor Troicki to book his place in the second round of the Sofia Open.

The seventh-seeded Frenchman required just 59 minutes to beat Troicki 6-3, 6-4, and extend his perfect record over the Serb to 5-0.

Monfils, who will face either Laslo Djere or Mikhail Kukushkin for a place in the quarter-finals, broke once in each set and saved all four break points that he faced.

“I feel very good [in Sofia]. There is a great energy here, the people are very nice and it is an amazing stadium,” he said. “It was a very good [match], I returned very good and the key was a great serve.”

Jan-Lennard Struff also secured a straightforward win over Stefano Travaglia from Italy with the German taking the match 6-4, 6-3 to book a second-round clash with second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Top seed Karen Khachanov will take on Matteo Berrettini in his opener after the Italian beat Denis Istomin 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) while Robin Haase set up a second-round encounter with third seed Daniil Medvedev after easing to a 6-2, 6-4 win over Dimitar Kuzmanov of Bulgaria.

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