Montpellier, France – Former world No. 3 star Nikolay Davydenko was a second-round upset victim Wednesday at the Open Sud de France tennis event.
Left-handed Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen upended the fifth-seeded Davydenko in 6-3, 7-6 (10-8) fashion on the indoor hardcourts at Montpellier's Park & Suites Arena.
Also in the second round, eighth-seeded rising Frenchman Benoit Paire saved a match point before outlasting quality Belgian Steve Darcis, 4-6, 7-6 (13-11), 6-4.
A pair of seeds posted opening-round wins on Day 2, as No. 6 Julien Benneteau of France was leading Adrian Ungur 6-3, 4-2 when the Romanian retired with a leg injury and No. 7 Viktor Troicki of Serbia handled French wild card Lucas Pouille 6-4, 7-5. Benneteau was a runner-up at this event in Lyon in 2008.
Long-time French crowd favorite Michael Llodra reached the second round with a 6-3, 6-3 decision against lucky-loser compatriot Kenny De Schepper. The left- handed Llodra, a runner-up at this event in Lyon in 2009, will meet second seed Janko Tipsarevic here on Thursday.
Also in the first round, Spanish qualifier Arnau Brugues-Davi edged out Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) and Japan's Tatsuma Ito fought back to beat Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.
In addition to Tipsarevic-Llodra, a marquee second-round bout on Thursday will pit third-seeded Richard Gasquet against fellow French star Gael Monfils. Gasquet captured this event in Lyon back in 2006, while Monfils was last year's Montpellier runner-up to Czech Tomas Berdych, titled here in 2010, and was also the runner-up in 2005.
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