American Michael Mmoh and Italian Flavio Cobolli both left the home crowd disappointed on Wednesday, upsetting Frenchmen Alexandre Muller and Gael Monfils at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.
Mmoh cruised to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Muller, the seventh seed, in the second round, while Cobolli rallied to knock off the eighth-seeded Monfils 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-0 in the first round. Mmoh tallied four aces in his match, but Cobolli finished with just one.
In other first-round action, France's Constant Lestienne ousted Bernabe Zapatas Miralles of Spain 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. He will face Cobolli in the second round, where No. 6 seed Alexander Shevchenko of Kazakhstan will go up against France's Gregoire Barrere following his 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win over Czech qualifier Dalibor Svrcina on Wednesday.
Two other second-round matchups saw wild card Harold Mayot beat Benoit Paire 6-1, 6-4 in an all-French battle and Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik, the No. 2 seed, rally past Canadian Denis Shapovalov 1-6, 7-6 (12), 6-3.
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