Gilles Simon through to second round of French Open

Gilles Simon made it safely through to the second round of the French Open with a straight-sets win over Rogerio Dutra Silva on Monday afternoon in Paris.

The Frenchman dropped serve five times throughout the match, but he earned a 7-6(5) 6-4 6-2 victory in two hours and 40 minutes on the clay court.

© AFP

Simon suffered a wobble early in the first set as his serve was snatched twice by Dutra Silva, who took a 3-0 lead, but the 16th seed fought back to force a tie-break.

The 31-year-old, who has not progressed further than the fourth round at Roland Garros, took the breaker 7-5 before holding off a fightback from his opponent in the second set to double his lead.

Dutra Silva's energy dropped as he failed to create a single break point in the third set as Simon broke twice to book himself a place in the next round.