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David Goffin moved to the second round of the Monte-Carlo Masters with a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 win over Guido Andreozzi on Monday, as the other main names also made it through unscathed.
The one exception was the 15th seed Denis Shapovalov, who despite winning the opening set with relative ease could not later summon that same nous and went down 5-7, 6-3, 6-1, to Jan-Lennard Struff.
But while Shapovalov endured a birthday to forget - he turned 20 - on the main show court Rainier III, Goffin experienced no such difficulties en route to his 10th tournament victory in 85 minutes.
Goffin, who defeated Dominic Thiem and Novak Djokovic to progress to the semi-final in 2017, was largely error-free and able to save five of six break points to secure his place in the next round.
There was a sense of ruthlessness with Goffin, who wasted no time in moving 4-0 ahead until a string of unforced errors allowed Andreozzi to claim at least one game and spare him deeper blushes.
The Argentine seemed to find his footing in the second set, but he left himself vulnerable in surrendering his fourth service game, as a clinical Goffin powered away with the following two for the match.
Goffin will face Dusan Lajovic in the second round, after the Serb earlier defeated Malek Jaziri of Tunisia 6-4, 6-4. Victory then would set up the possibility of a third-round showdown with Thiem.
But there was to be no big tennis birthday party for Shapovalov who could not channel the occasional flashes of brilliance into a second win over Struff after beating him so well in Tokyo in 2018.
When Shapovalov combined his flashy one-handed backhand and strong strokes from the baseline, the effects were devastating. When he did not, as was more common, Struff looked in control of the court. Still, the young Canadian held on to the crucial points and held up to duly convert his advantage at 6-5 to win the first set that lasted 56 minutes with a deep roar that evinced great satisfaction.
And yet it was Struff who kept his cool under the sun on the Cote D’Azur, calmly slotting away winners in the second and third sets. By the end, he went up 4-1, then 5-1, and won on an unforced error.
The outcome of that tie means Struff will face Grigor Dimitrov in the second round, while Rafael Nadal opens his title defence against Roberto Bautista Agut, who beat John Millman 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Fabio Fognini survived an early scare in his first round match with qualifier Andrey Rublev which ended 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Top seed Novak Djokovic  is set to play unseeded Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round Tuesday.
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16/04/2019
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