Ernests Gulbis beats Florian Mayer in Sofia

Former world number 10 Ernests Gulbis reached the first round of the Sofia Open with a victory over qualifying top seed Florian Mayer.

The Latvian, now ranked 199, saw off his German opponent 6-4 6-1 in the second qualifying round of the Bulgarian event on Monday to set up a meeting with sixth seed Viktor Troicki.

There was an upset as the first round proper later got under way with eighth seed Evgeny Donskoy losing 6-4 6-4 to Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko.

Seventh seed Joao Sousa overcame a tough start to make progress with a 7-6 (8/6) 6-1 victory over Bulgaria’s Dimitar Kuzmanov.

Home favourite Benoit Paire made a winning start at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier. The unseeded French world number 44 saw off Germany’s Mischa Zverev 6-4 6-4.

Sixth seed Andrey Rublev also went through, beating Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4 6-4.