By Chris Oddo | Wednesday February 8, 2017

 

Dustin Browned earned his first win over a Top 10 player on a hard court by defeating Marin Cilic in straight sets on Wednesday at the Open Sud de France.

Photo Source: Tennis TV

Marin Cilic has been knocked out of the Open Sud de France in his first match for the second consecutive year. The World No.7 was bounced by Dustin Brown, and he never sniffed a break point over the course of Brown’s 61-minute, 6-4, 6-4 upset.

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The dynamic German ripped eight aces and won 22 or 25 first-serve points to notch his fourth career Top-10 win, and first on hard courts.

Brown, who knocked off Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in straight sets in the first round, will face either Benoit Paire or Feliciano Lopez in the quarterfinals. The German reached his first ATP quarterfinal at Montpellier last season when he upset Gilles Simon in the round of 16 and Ruben Bemelmans in the quarterfinals.

In other action on Wednesday, No.5-seeded Lopez took out Julien Benneteau, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(0).

A trio of Frenchmen—Paul Henri-Mathieu, Pierre Hugues-Herbert and Kenny de Schepper—advanced on Wednesday to reach the second round.

A Frenchman has won this tournament in all but one of the last six years, with Tomas Berdych the lone foreigner to take home the title. Three-time champion Richard Gasquet has won the title in each of the last two years.

Gasquet will take on Malek Jaziri in the round of 16 on Thursday, while No.2-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will face Herbert.