Brown Takes Another Top 10 Win In Montpellier

Dustin Brown added another Top 10 win to his growing tally of upsets on the ATP World Tour. The 32-year-old German toppled top seed Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.

The hard-serving Brown struck eight aces and lost only three first-serve points (22/25) in the hour-long contest. He never faced a break point.

Brown had been 3-11 lifetime against Top 10 players but his trio of victories had come on grass (Nadal, 2014 Halle, 2015 Wimbledon) and clay courts (Isner, 2014 Houston). Brown had been defeated – 0-9 – by Top 10 players on hard courts.

Cilic suffered an opening loss in Montpellier for the second consecutive year. He lost to #NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev last year. The 28-year-old Croatian is now 1-3 on the season, having lost his Chennai opener and in the second round of the Australian Open last month.

Alexander Zverev’s older brother, Mischa Zverev, couldn’t reproduce the tennis that saw him reach a Grand Slam quarter-final for the first time last month in Melbourne. The sixth-seeded Zverev fell to French qualifier Kenny De Schepper 6-4, 6-3. In the battle of 35 year olds, Spaniard Feliciano Lopez prevailed against Frenchman Julien Benneteau, blasting 16 aces to win 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(0) in just over two hours. Lopez saved a match point down 30/40, 4-5 in the third set.