Paris, France – Fernando Verdasco was among Monday's winners, while former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero came up a loser at the final ATP Masters event of the year, the $3.06 million BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.
The former world No. 7 Verdasco came from behind to best Croat Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, while Verdasco's Spanish compatriot Ferrero gave way to qualifier and French crowd favorite Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 6-3 on the indoor hardcourts at Palais Omnisports. Ferrero captured the French Open here in Paris back in 2003.
Verdasco is rewarded with a Tuesday second-round match against fifth-seeded Czech slugger Tomas Berdych, the 2005 Paris Masters champ.
American Alex Bogomolov Jr. overcame Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, while German qualifier Philipp Kohlschreiber handled former top-10 Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 6-2.
Other Day-1 wins came for France's Julien Benneteau, German Florian Mayer, South African Kevin Anderson, and Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. The wild card Benneteau surprised promising Canadian slugger Milos Raonic 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
Also seeing action here on Tuesday will be sixth-seeded French star Jo- Wilfried Tsonga and 13th-seeded former world No. 1 Andy Roddick. The 2008 Paris Masters champion and former Australian Open runner-up Tsonga will face Garcia-Lopez, while the former U.S. Open titlist Roddick will battle Benneteau.
This week's top seeds are world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, 2011 Aussie Open runner- up Andy Murray and former top-ranked great Roger Federer, who's fresh off his first title in 10 months after winning in his native Basel this past the weekend. Djokovic captured this particular Parisian event two years ago.
Sweden's Robin Soderling topped flashy Frenchman Gael Monfils in last year's Paris Masters finale, but an injured Soderling is not competing this week.