Kevin Anderson knocked out a 2016 titlist and earned his third match win of the season on Tuesday at the Open de Nice Cote d’ Azur in France. The South African hit seven aces and won 70 per cent of his service points to dismiss Diego Schwartzman, the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open champion, 7-6(4), 6-3.

After winning the first-set tie-break, Anderson broke the Argentine to go up 3-1. The No. 3 seed then erased both second-set break points to advance.

Anderson has dealt with left knee and right shoulder problems and underwent minor ankle surgery on 15 March. The World No. 20 has extra incentive to stay healthy this week: He turns 30 on Wednesday. In the third round, he will face No. 5 seed Joao Sousa. The Portuguese overcame a one-set deficit to beat Victor Estrella Burgos 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Sousa earned two early breaks in the third set and later served for the win.

World No. 63 Adrian Mannarino needed only 52 minutes to win an all-French battle and dispatch fourth seed Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-0. It’s the second time this year Mannarino has beaten Paire, No. 21 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, in straight sets. The left-hander won 6-1, 6-3 at the BNP Paribas Open.

Marcel Granollers spoiled Brian Baker’s return to Nice by beating the American 6-3, 6-1. Baker was playing in Nice for the first time since reaching the final as a qualifier in 2012 (l. to Almagro). Granollers will face #NextGen player Alexander Zverev in the second round. The 30-year-old Spaniard won their previous meeting, a three-set triumph at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters last month.

Seventh seed Andreas Seppi outlasted Daniel Munoz de la Nava 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-4 in two hours and 32 minutes. Seppi erased a match point at 4-5 in the second set. In the second round, Seppi will face Paul-Henri Mathieu, who beat #NextGen player Hyeon Chung 7-6(3), 6-3.

Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka made the home crowd happy on Tuesday at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. The World No. 4 took only 53 minutes to bypass Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1, 6-1 and move into the quarter-finals of his home tournament. Wawrinka, the No. 1 seed, received a first-round bye.

He improved to 6-0 against Ramos-Vinolas, No. 53 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Wawrinka has won two titles so far this season, the Aircel Chennai Open in January and the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February. But the defending Roland Garros champion has failed to string three consecutive wins together since Dubai.

He’ll next face Pablo Carreno Busta, who beat Inigo Cervantes 6-2, 6-4. Wawrinka won their previous meeting, a three-set contest on clay in 2013.

Reigning Geneva champion Thomaz Bellucci looked eager to defend his title. Bellucci erased all three break points and slid past Mikhail Kukushkin 6-2, 6-1. The Brazilian will face sixth seed Federico Delbonis. The Argentine leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 4-2, all of which have been played on clay.

Rajeev Ram improved to 2-1 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Evgeny Donskoy. The American hit 10 aces and prevailed against the Russian qualifier 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and seven minutes. Ram broke Donskoy at 3-2 in the final set and later served for the win. The 32 year old will face Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Denis Istomin ended Florian Mayer’s good luck in Geneva. Mayer, who was a lucky loser, lost to Istomin for the third time, 6-2, 6-3. Istomin erased the lone break point faced and won in 57 minutes. He’ll play No. 2 seed David Ferrer, who received a first-round bye. Ferrer leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-1, including a clay-court win in 2013 at the Mutua Madrid Open.

DAY 4 PREVIEW: No. 3 seed Marin Cilic and No. 4 seed John Isner return to the ATP World Tour on Wednesday when they play in the second round of the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. The 6-foot-6 Cilic and 6-foot-10 Isner missed ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events at Monte-Carlo, Madrid and Rome due to knee injuries. Isner, whose last match came on April 10, begins play against Lukas Rosol. Cilic, who has not played since March 27, opens against fellow 27-year-old Ernests Gulbis.

Also on Court Central, Ferrer makes his Geneva debut against Istomin. Ranked 12th, Ferrer is outside the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings this week for the first time since October 10, 2010. Though the 34-year-old Spaniard is 16-9 in 2016, he has yet to play in a final – his longest drought to start a season since 2006. Istomin, too, is struggling by his standards. The Uzbek is 4-12 in 2016 and has not reached a quarter-final since St. Petersburg last September.

Bellucci was also off to a slow start this season, losing seven straight matches after advancing to the Quito final. Last week in Rome, the Brazilian beat Gael Monfils and Nicolas Mahut before falling to World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Though he lost the match, Bellucci became the first player since Roger Federer at Cincinnati in 2012 to sweep six games in a set from the Serb.

Bellucci meets Delbonis in the second match on Court Central. All eight players competing on Court Central have captured an ATP World Tour title, though Delbonis is the only one to do so in 2016. He won a clay-court championship at Marrakech on April 10 and is fifth among all players in clay-court wins this season.

Gregoire Barrere, Mitchell Krueger, Omar Jasika and Daniil Medvedev feature in the second edition of the Young Guns Contest, which is part of Tecnifibre’s On The Road to the ATP World Tour programme.

The four young players, who are attempting to rise up the Emirates ATP Rankings in 2016, will compete for a $50,000 prize based on their on-court results and also their ability to share their lives on social media.

Visit Tecnifibre Young Guns Website

Barrere, a 22-year-old from France, currently No. 216 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, said, “It is a great challenge and this cash prize is an important amount. Even though I am lucky enough to receive some funding from the [French Tennis] Federation, this amount will, for example, allow me to increase the size of my team to a physio at certain periods of the season. This contest is also an opportunity to become more professional in communicating and getting closer to the people who follow and support me on tour. To work on self-branding is now part of the sport.”

American Krueger, also 22, said, “It is opportunity to strike gold! To win this contest will ease my entry into the big leagues! The way to win this cash prize won’t be easy, I will need to plan out carefully and be smart on the social networks.”

Each of the young players will be assigned a Tecnifibre team mentor – Jeremy Chardy, Denis Kudla, John Millman and Aljaz Bedene – to help them win the competition.

“I am supporting Greg and I will take my role extremely seriously,” said Chardy. “We are a team! He told me that I bring him luck because the week after we practised together at the On The Road camp in May, he won an ITF Futures tournament in Angers. He’s on a streak, he’s playing well! We will also try and push his image on the social network sites. We’re going to fight until the end.”

Kudla, who won the inaugural Young Guns contest in 2015, will help Krueger, while Jasika will join forces with fellow Australian Millman and Bedene will support 20-year-old Russian Medvedev.

The winner’s cheque will be presented at the Barclays World Tour Finals in London in November.