Feliciano Lopez beat Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (7) Tuesday to reach the second round of the Open Sud de France.
The fifth-seeded Spaniard finished with 19 aces and had the only break of the match - in the third game of the opening set. He then jumped to a 5-1 lead in the second-set tiebreaker.
Seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany and eighth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland also advanced.
Kohlschreiber broke serve twice in each set to defeat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-1, 6-4. French qualifier Maxime Teixeira saved 11 break points, but still lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to Nieminen, who won the Sydney International this month.
Flavio Cipolla of Italy, American veteran Michael Russell and four Frenchmen - Paul-Henri Mathieu, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Nicolas Mahut and Florent Serra - also moved into the second round.
Cipolla rallied past Marc Gicquel of France 1-6, 6-4, 7-5; Russell topped Adrian Mannarino of France 6-3, 7-5; and Mathieu beat Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany 6-4, 6-4 to earn his first victory this year after missing the 2011 season because of a knee injury.
Roger-Vasselin downed Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain 7-5, 6-2; Serra ousted Tobias Kamke of Germany 6-3, 6-3; and Mahut topped Albert Ramos of Spain 6-3, 6-2.
