Home favourite Gilles Simon has made it safely through to the second round of the year's final ATP Masters event in Paris.
The Frenchman saw off former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets on what was a positive day for the natives.
Both Julien Bennetaeu and Benoit Paire were victorious on home soil as they defeated Viktor Troicki and Pablo Adujar respectively.
The highest-ranked casualty of the opening stage was Germany's Phillip Kohlschreiber, who lost 7-6 6-4 to world number 69 Jerzy Janowicz.
Andreas Seppi and Florian Mayer also fell to lower-ranked opponents in the shape of Martin Klizan and qualifier Alejandro Falla.
Albert Ramos came out on top in his all-Spainish clash with Feliciano Lopez, while their compatriot Marcel Granollers beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-4 6-3.
In the day's other results, Kevin Anderson dropped just three games on his way to victory over Thomaz Belluci, and Carlos Berlocq triumphed 7-6 6-2 over Denis Istomin.
