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Gicquel knocks out Tommy Robredo in Lyon opening round

France's Marc Gicquel upset second-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain, 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the opening round of the 659,000 euro (US$929,190) Lyon Grand Prix on Monday.

The 30-year-old Gicquel avenged a loss in his only other meeting against Robredo, in August just before the US Open, and beat an opponent ranked in the ATP's top 10 for the first time in six tries.

"I tried to be aggressive, to get my points at the net. It paid," said Gicquel, who reached his only singles final in an ATP event last year in Lyon.

US player Mardy Fish also scored a first-round upset, beating seventh-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4).

In other matches, France's Julien Benneteau defeated countryman Edouard Roger-Vasselin, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1, and another Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Vincent Spadea of the US 6-3, 6-4.

Alona Bondarenko beat Martina Muller of Germany 6-3, 6-0 on Monday in the first round of the Generali Ladies.

The 23rd-ranked Bondarenko broke her opponent three times in the first set and dropped only four points on serve in the second.

The Ukrainian will next play either seventh-seeded Tatiana Golovin, who reached the final of the Zurich Open on Sunday, or Eleni Daniilidou.

Yvonne Meusburger also advanced, rallying to beat Melanie Klaffner 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-3.

Meusburger led 3-0 before dropping the first set, but then dominated her 17-year-old opponent in the final two sets.

Ernests Gulbis upset eighth-seeded Thomas Johansson of Sweden 6-2, 6-1 on Monday in the first round of the St. Petersburg Open.

The 47th-ranked Latvian capitalized on Johansson's double-faults in the first and the fifth games of the first set, and won four consecutive games in the second. He finished with 11 aces.

"I know him well, we practice together. He hasn't played even to 50 percent of his potential today," Gulbis said.

Fifth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov also advanced, beating Jurgen Melzer of Austria 7-6 (6), 7-6 (0).

Boris Pashanski of Serbia defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 7-6 (6), 6-4, and Denis Matsukevitch of Russian beat qualifier Igor Kunitsyn 7-6 (2), 6-3.
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