Simon beats Baghdatis in Paris, Lopez and Youzhny out

Gilles Simon booked his place in the second round of the 2012 Paris Masters after beating Marcos Baghdatis 7-5 6-1 in one hour and 17 minutes.

The first set saw both players exchanging one break each to take it to 3-3. But the home crowd favorite Simon struck again in the 12th game when Baghdatis was serving to stay in the set and the Frenchman took a lead in the match.

Simon seemed to have broken the Cypriot’s resistance and with two more breaks of serve to his good in set two, he advanced into the next round of the tournament. He will now play Romanian lucky loser Victor Hanescu, who replaced Federer after the Swiss pulled out of this year’s masters.

Elsewhere, in an all spanish conquest, Albert Ramos defeated Feliciano Lopez in straight sets 7-6 (5) 6-4. Ramos managed to save 9 out of 10 break points he faced, setting up a second round clash against another countryman and ATP World Tour finals hopeful, no.11 seed Nicolas Almagro.

In another first round matches, Spaniard Marcel Granollers eliminated Mikhail Youzhny of Russia with a 6-4 6-3 scoreline and Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq overcame Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 7-6 (2) 6-2.

Tags Albert Ramos ATP Paris Masters results Carlos Berlocq Denis Istomin Feliciano Lopez gilles simon Marcel Granollers Marcos Baghdatis Mikhail Youzhny