NICE, France (AP) — Fifth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus has beated Laurent Recouderc of France 6-4, 7-5 in the first round of the Open de Nice.
Baghdatis was initially scheduled to play Mario Ancic on Tuesday, but the Croat withdrew because of a back injury and was replaced by Recouderc.
The Cypriot dropped serve only once and will next play Simon Greul of Germany.
Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine defeated Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-5, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.