GATINEAU, March 1, 2017

The first and second seeds of the $25,000 Gatineau Futures presented by the Turpin Group, Gleb Sakharov from France and Canadian Denis Shapovalov, won their first round matches on Tuesday at the Gatineau Sporthèque.

The 17-year-old leftie from Ontario had the upper hand on his opponent, the US-American qualifier Nathaniel Lammons, in two sets of 6-3, 6-2. Shapovalov saved all of the three break points he faced, converting two of his own to set a second round clash with Frederik Nielsen from Denmark after only 53 minutes.

Top seed Gleb Sakharov had to fight more against Canadian wild card Samuel Monette but eventually emerged victorious 6-2, 7-6 in two hours and one minute. The World No. 264 from France will next take on US-American qualifier Quinton Vega.

Two tournament seeds fell in the first round. In one of the first matches of the day, the Frenchman Gregoire Barrere, the fourth seed, lost in straight sets to US-American Ryan Shane 5-7, 6-7. Later in the day, the sixth seed Eduardo Struvay from Colombia, also lost to an US-American player, 27-year-old Eric Quigley 3-6, 0-6. 

With these eliminations, the draw will open up for a number players, including Felix Auger-Aliassime. The Montrealer will play his opening singles match of the tournament on Wednesday afternoon against fellow Canadian wildcard recipient Pavel Krainik. This match will be followed by the duo made up of Sébastien Collard and Zacharie Pineault from Gatineau. They will face the fourth seeded doubles of the tournament, Mikelis Libietis and Hugo Nys.

Canadian Philip Bester will be busy as he plays against US-American JC Aragone late in the morning before teaming up with US-American Adam El Mihdawy for a double match in the early evening.