Lloda, Tsonga start Open 13 with wins

Defending champion Michael Llodra and former champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga both won their first-round matches at the Open 13 on Tuesday.

The sixth-seeded Tsonga, who won the indoor tournament in Marseille two years ago, had 10 aces as he topped fellow Frenchman Benoit Paire 6-1, 6-2.

Tsonga, who lost the Rotterdam final last Sunday against Robin Soderling, next faces Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.

The eighth-seeded Llodra had a tougher match, winning 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 against Julien Benneteau in another all-French match.

Llodra had 10 aces and seven double faults and next plays Germany's Tobias Kamke, who routed Dutch player Thomas Schoorel 6-0, 6-2.

In other first-round matches, Nicolas Mahut of France beat Russia's Andrey Kumantsov 6-2, 6-0, Croat Marin Cilic beat Switzerland's Stephane Bohli 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-2 and Andreas Seppi of Italy beat Dutchman Robin Haase 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (2).