Andrey Rublev had a tremendous 2017 season, soaring from No. 156 to No. 39 in the ATP Rankings, claiming his maiden title in Umag and finishing runner-up at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan.

And after the 20-year-old Russian advanced to the Qatar ExxonMobil Open final to open his 2018 ATP World Tour season, he still has not slowed. Rublev defeated 34-year-old Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 6-4 in 75 minutes to move into the second round at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier on Monday.

In the pair’s first FedEx ATP Head2Head encounter, Rublev won all but six of his first-serve points (29/35) and broke three times to claim victory. He can possibly face fellow #NextGenATP contender Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round should the 19-year-old Greek battle past home favourite Jeremy Chardy.

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Another Frenchman, Benoit Paire, thrilled the home crowd by ousting defending doubles champion Mischa Zverev (w/ Alexander Zverev) by the same score, 6-4, 6-4. It was a reversal of the duo’s meeting at the 2017 US Open, when the German came out on top in a five-set thriller.

Paire will next face the winner of No. 8 seed Yuichi Sugita and Australian John Millman.

Three Frenchmen lead Tuesday’s slate on Court Patrice Dominguez with Chardy, wild card Julien Benneteau and recent Tata Open Maharashtra champion Gilles Simon featuring in the day’s first three matches, with seventh seed David Ferrer facing inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier Karen Khachanov in a popcorn match to close out play on the tournament’s centre court.

In 2017, Lukas Lacko did not win a main draw tour-level match after the Australian Open until the Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open in July. This year, the Slovakian wasted no time, upsetting eighth seed Evgeny Donskoy 6-4, 6-4 at the Diema Xtra Sofia Open on Monday.

Lacko extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead against the Russian to 2-0, with their previous meeting coming at the 2014 Shenzhen Open. The Slovakian broke twice in the match, and did not face break point himself to advance to the second round, where he will face either Moldovan Radu Albot or qualifier Jozef Kovalik.

In the only other main draw match of the day, seventh seed Joao Sousa withstood a tough test from home favourite Dimitar Kuzmanov, the World No. 340, to move on by a 7-6(6), 6-1 margin.

The Bulgarian saved two set points on Sousa’s serve at 4-5 in the opening set before earning three of his own in the ensuing tie-break at 6/3, but the World No. 68 showed his class to overcome the wild card and set up a second-round battle against German Maximilian Marterer or Tunisian Malek Jaziri.

The highest seed in action on Tuesday will be No. 6 Viktor Troicki, who takes on former World No. 10 Ernests Gulbis in the second match of the evening session.

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Quito is called “The City in the Sky” for good reason: The Ecuadorian capital sits in (and often above) the clouds at 9,350 feet (2,800 meters) above sea level. A panorama of the mountainous region that’s carved into the rugged Andes is breathtaking. The thin, high-altitude air can be breathtaking as well. 

Cerro Puntas, a protected wetland area in Quito, is home to the Paluguillo Drinking Water Treatment Plant of EPMAPS Agua de Quito, a sponsor of this week’s Ecuador Open. Because of environmental pollution and contamination of the region’s water supply, Cerro Puntas is vital when it comes to producing water that is pure enough for human consumption.

Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic and Brazil’s Rogerio Dutra Silva, both entrants in this week’s ATP World Tour 250 event in Quito, visited the over 2,000-acre water treatment center and got an inside look at the importance the plant plays within the region. Karlovic was especially impressed by the facility and the role it plays not just in the lives of the Ecuadorian people, but also to the area’s wildlife.

“This has been an awesome experience,” Karlovic, the tournament’s seventh seed said. “We’re in a high, remote region, but you stay a while and you realise how clean the water is, how well it’s been treated for consumption and how low risk it is both to the people that live here, and to the animals that inhabit the area as well.”

Dutra Silva was equally as impressed: “I had no idea this plant even existed; it feels good to know that people are benefiting from the work that’s done here, and I’m grateful to have had the chance to visit the plant. Water, obviously, is essential to life itself. And specifically to us tennis players, quality water plays a role in meeting the demands that come with performing at the highest level on the court.”

Marisol Fraga, director of communications for EPMAPS Agua de Quito, was grateful to have the players visit the Cerro Puntas grounds.

“Just by being here, these players helped highlight the work done by the 1,800 employees at this treatment center on a daily basis,” Fraga said. “We want to send a message across the planet that it’s up to all of us to make this world a better place.”