The Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, eighth seeded, beat the Slovakian Lukas Lacko on Monday in the first round of the Montpellier tennis tournament (France), which is played on hard court and distributes 463,520 euros in prizes.
Baghdatis needed an hour and 37 minutes to win 7-5 by a double to Lacko, number 109 in the world ranking.
The Cypriot will meet in the round of 16 with the Japanese Taro Daniel, 97 of the world and that in the last game of the first day he got rid of the Uzbek Denis Istomin, 61 of the ATP ranking, by 6-2 and 6-2 in only 55 minutes.
Alexander Zverev also reached the eighth, in his case by beating Italian Luca Vanni 6-7 (3), 6-4 and 7-5. The German will be the first rival of the second seed, the Croatian Marin Cilic, exempt from the first round.
The first favorite of the Montpellier tournament is the Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who will make his debut directly in the round of 16 against the winner of the match that this Tuesday will be played by Latvian Ernests Gulbis and Quentin Halys, also French.
Baghdatis passes the first round in Montpellier
