Bulgarian tennis player Adrian Andreev advanced to the second round of the singles tournament on hard courts from the Challenger 50 series in Hersonissos, Greece, with a prize fund of €56,700.
The 25-year-old from Sofia, who successfully came through qualifying, defeated fellow qualifier Benjamin Pietri of France 6:2, 7:6(1) after a tough battle lasting two hours and 17 minutes.
Andreev showed the more consistent game in the first set and converted three break points, compared with just one for his opponent, to take the lead.
The second set was more evenly contested and went to a tiebreak, in which the Bulgarian dominated emphatically, allowing the Frenchman just one point to close out the match.
Thanks to this success, Andreev has already secured seven ATP ranking points, and currently occupies 584th place.
In the second round of the competition, the Bulgarian will face a serious challenge in the form of third seed Raul Brancaccio of Italy, who is ranked 222nd in the world.
In addition to competing in the singles event, Adrian Andreev will also begin his doubles campaign tomorrow. He will partner Ukraine's Vladyslav Orlov, with the pair facing an all Bulgarian-Luxembourgish duo consisting of home hope Aleks Ganchev and Sacha Maes.