Nice - French wild card Julien Benneteau upset sixth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis 7-6 (3), 6-2 in the first round of the Open de Nice on Tuesday.
Benneteau converted three of four break opportunities to claim his third win in five matches over Baghdatis and avenge a straight-set loss three weeks ago in Munich. It was also his first win on clay this season.
Latvian wild card Ernests Gulbis rallied to beat eighth-seeded Fabio Fognini 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 after saving nine of 11 break points.
After a strong start to the season that took him to the semi-finals in Doha, Gulbis went through a poor run of form. He will now try to win consecutive matches for the first time in four months.
Sergiy Stakhovsky also advanced by beating Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 7-6 (5), 6-3.
The seventh-seeded Stakhovsky, a quarter-finalist at the warm-up event for the French Open last year, broke his opponent three times to set up a match against Robin Haase. The Dutch lucky loser defeated Yen-hsun Lu of Taiwan 6-3, 6-4.
Carlos Berlocq came from behind to beat Austrian qualifier Andreas Haider-Maurer 5-7, 6-3, 6-0. The Argentine will play third-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain.