Arthur De Greef beats Pablo Cuevas at the Rio Open
Pablo Cuevas beaten in Rio; Britain's Naomi Broady suffers Budapest exit
Tuesday 21 February 2017 17:27, UK
Defending champion Pablo Cuevas was dumped out of the Rio Open by qualifier Arthur De Greef on Monday.
Cuevas, who upset Rafael Nadal en route to winning the 2016 title in Brazil, suffered a shock 6-3 3-6 7-5 defeat to the 24-year-old Belgian.
De Greef recorded the biggest win of his career to set up a meeting with Argentine Nicolas Kicker, who was a 7-5 6-0 winner over fellow qualifier Marco Cecchinato.
"It was unbelievable," De Greef told the official ATP Tour website. "I played from the start till the end a very good match. It was unbelievable with the crowd who was going crazy. We did a few unbelievable points. I enjoyed a lot."
There were also wins for Casper Ruud, Roberto Carballes Baena, Dusan Lajovic and Diego Schwartzman on a low-key day in the 2016 Olympic city.
Kei Nishikori, who finished as runner-up to Alexandr Dolgopolov in the Argentina Open final on Sunday, will play his opening match against home hope Thomaz Bellucci on Tuesday.
At the Open 13 in Marseille, home favourite Gilles Simon needed three sets to get past Russia's Karen Khachanov.
The seventh seed came from a set down to triumph 4-6 7-5 6-3 and he was joined in the second round by Mikhail Youzhny, who beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-1 4-6 7-5.
Britain's Aljaz Bedene also made it through, coming from a set down to beat home favourite Paul-Henri Mathieu.
The British No 4 ranked one place below Mathieu at 102 in the world, turned things around at the start of the second set and served 20 aces in a 3-6 6-1 6-4 victory - he plays another Frenchman, Lucas Pouille in round two.
Naomi Broady suffered a disappointing loss to qualifier Anna Blinkova in the first round of the Hungarian Ladies Open in Budapest.
The British No 3 served 16 aces but dropped serve once in both the second and third sets to lose 3-6 6-4 6-3 in an hour and 45 minutes.
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