THE first day of the ATP Tour’s Miami Open fantasy tennis tournament opened with a bang as the bottom half of the first round took place. There were a number of interesting results with plenty of outside contenders for the title winning through to face a seed in the Round of 64.

It was a huge day for France with seven players taking to the courts, five of which made it through to the next round. It started off with a massive 6-1 6-0 win to Gilles Simon over Serbian Laslo Djere, while Ugo Humbert knocked off British qualifier Cameron Norrie, 6-4 6-1. Jeremy Chardy easily accounted for Jordan Thompson 6-2 6-3, while Lucas Pouille had no troubles against Australian Open quarter finalist Tennys Sandgren, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga‘s first match since his first round exit at Melbourne Park was a positive one with a 7-6 6-4 victory over Sandgren’s United States compatriot Steve Johnson.

There were a number of qualifiers through to the second round as well, with Belarusian, Egor Gerasimov having no troubles against American wildcard, Mackenzie McDonald 6-3 6-0, Spanish talent Alejandro Davidovich Fokina downing Italian Lorenzo Sonego 6-3 6-3, and in an all-qualifying battle between experienced opponents, Andreas Seppi toppled Damir Dzumhur, 6-1 6-4. The sole wildcard through to the next round was in-form Canadian, Vasek Pospisil who sent Romanian Radu Albot packing 6-4 6-3.

In the match of the day, Jiri Vesely had to overcome a challenge from Frenchman, Richard Gasquet. The Czech found himself down 6-1 5-4 down, but bounced back to break twice in the last three games to level the match at a set apiece. He then continued that form to race out to a 3-1 lead in the deciding set and held on from there to record a 1-6 7-5 6-4 victory. Likewise, Swede Mikael Ymer had to come from a set down to knock off another Frenchman in qualifier, Corentin Moutet 4-6 7-5 6-1.

The other three remaining three-setters were Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik toppling Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis 6-3 3-6 6-1, Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic also coming from behind to knock out Marin Cilic in a shock result 5-7 6-0 7-6, and Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas defeating Ernests Gulbis 6-4 0-6 6-3 in a strange match. Other winners on day one were Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka and Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund.

Among the matches to watch on day two are German Philipp Kohlschreiber taking on Spaniard, Albert Ramos-Vinolas for the right to face world number one Novak Djokovic, as well as Norwegian Casper Ruud facing Italian wildcard Marco Cecchinato, and two young guns in Jannik Sinner and Tommy Paul going head-to-head.

ROUND OF 128 RESULTS:

Gilles Simon (FRA) defeated Laslo Djere (SRB) 6-1 6-0
Mikael Ymer (SWE) defeated [Q] Corentin Moutet (FRA) 4-6 7-5 6-1
Miomir Kecmanovic (SRB) defeated Marin Cilic (CRO) 5-7 6-0 7-6
Ugo Humbert (FRA) defeated [Q] Cameron Norrie (GBR) 6-4 6-1
[Q] Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP) defeated Lorenzo Sonego (ITA) 6-3 6-3
Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN) defeated [WC] Federico Delbonis (ARG) 6-1 6-1
Jiri Vesely (CZE) defeated Richard Gasquet (FRA) 1-6 7-5 6-4
[WC] Vasek Pospisil (CAN) defeated Radu Albot (ROU) 6-4 6-3
Jeremy Chardy (FRA) defeated Jordan Thompson (AUS) 6-2 6-3
[Q] Andreas Seppi (ITA) defeated [Q] Damir Dzumhur (BIH) 6-1 6-4
Kyle Edmund (GBR) defeated Marton Fucsovics (HUN) 6-1 6-1
Lucas Pouille (FRA) defeated Tennys Sandgren (USA) 6-3 6-0
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) defeated Steve Johnson (USA) 7-6 6-4
Pablo Cuevas (URU) defeated [Q] Ernests Gulbis (LAT) 6-4 0-6 6-3
Alexander Bublik (KAZ) defeated Ricardas Berankis (LTU) 6-3 3-6 6-1
[Q] Egor Gerasimov (BLR) defeated [WC] Mackenzie McDonald (USA) 6-3 6-0