Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain battled back from losing the opening set to beat Australia’s Christopher O’Connell 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 in opening-round action of the Open Occitanie on Monday in Montpellier, France.
Bautista Agut, who lost his opener at the Australian Open and started the year 0-2, overcame a sluggish performance in which he had 32 winners and 48 unforced errors.
O’Connell, who finished with 11 aces and one double fault on a 53 percent first-serve percentage, had a pair of match points up 5-4 in the third set but couldn’t convert them. Bautista Agut proceeded to break O’Connell in the following game and then served out the match.
In other first-round action, French competitor Adrian Mannarino beat Spaniard Pedro Martinez 7-6 (3), 6-1. Mannarino hit 14 aces and capitalized on rare break-point opportunities, winning two of the three.
In a battle of home-country competitors, wild card Arthur Gea also advanced to the second round up 6-3 after Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard was forced to retire when he hit a volley into his own eye. Gea is set to face the Czech No. 3 seed, Tomas Machac, in the second round.
–Field Level Media
