Gilles Simon and Gaël Monfils competing today at the Nice Côte d’Azur Open.

This Wednesday will mark the entry of the two French seeds, No. 2 Gilles Simon and No. 4 Gaël Monfils, who will need to confirm their ticket to the next round against, respectively, Bulgarian Dimitrov and American Baker, both of whom came through the qualifiers. There is no doubt the Nice public will be behind their protégé who will step onto the Nice LTC clay for the first time in a tournament. The match will be played on the center court right after No. 1 seed John Isner takes on Belgian Malisse.

TODAY’S PROGRAM – Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012

CENTRAL COURT starting at noon

S Darcis (BEL) vs F Volandri (ITA)

Not before 2:30 PM

[1] J Isner (USA) vs X Malisse (BEL)

[Q] G Dimitrov (BUL) vs [2] G Simon (FRA)

E Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs [3] N Almagro (ESP)

Not before 8:15 PM

[4] [WC] G Monfils (FRA) vs [Q] B Baker (USA)

COURT No. 1 starting at noon

E Butorac (USA) / B Soares (BRA) vs P Hanley (AUS) / J Knowle (AUT)

N Davydenko (RUS) vs [7] D Istomin (UZB)

Not before 3:00 PM

[WC] J Ferrero (ESP) vs [Q] T Bellucci (BRA)

M Kukushkin (KAZ) vs [5] B Tomic (AUS)

Not before 6:00 PM

[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) vs D Bracciali (ITA) / J Murray (GBR) – Possible Court Change

COURT No. 5 not before 3:30 PM

[3] A Qureshi (PAK) / J Rojer (NED) or J Cerretani (USA) / A Sa (BRA) vs S Lipsky (USA) / R Ram (USA)

Before 5:00 PM

[WC] J Isner (USA) / S Querrey (USA) vs [2] R Bopanna (IND) / D Marrero (ESP)

TUESDAY, MAY 22ND RESULTS

First round – Men’s Singles

[5] B Tomic (AUS) d L Lacko (SVK) 62 63

[WC] J Ferrero (ESP) d [6] R Haase (NED) 46 76(6) 76(6)

[7] D Istomin (UZB) d A Falla (COL) 76(3) 16 61

S Darcis (BEL) d [8] F Fognini (ITA) 76(3) 75

X Malisse (BEL) d Y Lu (TPE) 75 64

N Davydenko (RUS) d M Ebden (AUS) 63 63

[Q] B Baker (USA) d S Stakhovsky (UKR) 67(2) 64 75

M Kukushkin (KAZ) d [Q] S Querrey (USA) 62 75

F Volandri (ITA) d O Rochus (BEL) 46 76(2) 62

E Roger-Vasselin (FRA) d [WC] B Paire (FRA) 64 76(2)

[Q] T Bellucci (BRA) d D Young (USA) 67(5) 60 63

[Q] G Dimitrov (BUL) d D Sela (ISR) 75 61

First round – Men’s Doubles

[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d M Ebden (AUS) / B Tomic (AUS) 62 62

[3] A Qureshi (PAK) / J Rojer (NED) d J Cerretani (USA) / A Sa (BRA) 75 62

[4] J Cabal (COL) / S Gonzalez (MEX) d T Huey (PHI) / F Moser (GER) 64 36 10-6

D Bracciali (ITA) / J Murray (GBR) d J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) 75 26 12-10

S Lipsky (USA) / R Ram (USA) d M Elgin (RUS) / D Istomin (UZB) 63 64

O Marach (AUT) / F Polasek (SVK) d [WC] N Mahut (FRA) / E Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 75 63