Patience will be required to witness the first French-French clash, which will be played for the first time in the evening, featuring Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Benoît Paire. A delightful dessert for an equally hearty daytime menu with the Italy-Belgium clashes Volandri-Rochus and Fognini-Darcis, as well as the American qualifier Querrey trying to do just as well in the main draw against Kazakh Kukushkin.
The first round will start at 11 a.m. on the central court and adjoining courts of Nice LTC, with high-level early clashes featuring the Italian delegation and also Russian Davydenko, Australian Tomic, and Uzbek Istomin. Xavier Malisse will have to finish his match started against Taiwanese Lu, with the score at 7/5 and 1/0 in favor of the Belgian.
Gilles Simon, announced as a withdrawal then back again in the tournament, will hold a press conference tomorrow at 1 p.m., but nothing seems to suggest that the Nice native won’t be present for the second round of his Open, having been exempted from the first round due to his ATP ranking.
So join us today from 11 a.m. for this first great day of Nice tennis, hoping for clear blue skies!
Starting tomorrow, follow the Nice Côte d’Azur Tennis Open live on the Sports Portal with results and the big match played game by game, photo galleries, videos, and behind the scenes of the tournament, and on the Open Nice Côte d’Azur Facebook page
Program for Monday, May 21, 2012
CENTRAL COURT starting at 11 a.m.
[8] F Fognini (ITA) vs S Darcis (BEL)
X Malisse (BEL) vs Y Lu (TPE) 7/5 1/0
L Lacko (SVK) vs [5] B Tomic (AUS)
N Davydenko (RUS) vs M Ebden (AUS)
Not before 7:30 p.m.
E Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs [WC] B Paire (FRA)
COURT NO. 1 starting at 11 a.m.
F Volandri (ITA) vs O Rochus (BEL)
D Sela (ISR) vs [Q] G Dimitrov (BUL)
A Falla (COL) vs [7] D Istomin (UZB)
Not before 5 p.m.
J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) vs D Bracciali (ITA) / J Murray (GBR)
COURT NO. 5 starting at 12 p.m.
[3] A Qureshi (PAK) / J Rojer (NED) vs J Cerretani (USA) / A Sa (BRA)
M Kukushkin (KAZ) vs [Q] S Querrey (USA)
