MARSEILLE/WASHINGTON, February 10, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)
The 33rd edition of the Open 13 Provence began Monday in Marseille, nestled in the Bouches du Rhône region of southern France, with plenty of optimism and four former champions in the main draw: defending champ Ugo Humbert (2024), Hubert Hurkacz (2023), Daniil Medvedev (2021) and Karen Khachanov (2018).
Like Montpellier two weeks ago, this week’s ATP 250-series indoor hard court event lineup is filled with French players. Eleven of the 28 players featured in the main draw are from France, led by Humbert. He’s joined by fellow countrymen Benjamin Bonzi, Richard Gasquet, Quentin Halys and Harold Mayot. Plus, all four qualifiers and both lucky losers – Hugo Grenier, Arthur Gea, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Clement Chidekh, Manuel Guinard and Luca Van Assche – are Frenchmen, too.
Daniil Medvedev WC sera présent à l’Open 13 Provence du 10-16 fev 2025.
Photo @corinnedubreuil pic.twitter.com/gmmO2B5t7y
— Open 13 Provence (@Open13) January 29, 2025
However, with the tournament saving the French players for later in the week – and with the top seed Medvedev of Russia drawing a first-round bye – Monday’s play featured two of the tournament’s eight seeds in action. They included No. 5 seed Sebastian Korda of the United States and No. 7 seed Lorenzo Sonego of Italy.
World No. 23 Korda, who has reached three of his nine career ATP Tour finals indoors, came into his first-round match against No. 98 Otto Virtanen of Finland looking for his first indoor ATP Tour win since Marseille last year against Grenier in his tournament debut.
However, Virtanen had other ideas.
Virtanen (0-5 against Top-30 competition before Monday) scored the biggest win of his seven-year pro career after winning six ATP Challenger Tour titles. He defeated Korda, the only American in the singles draw, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-4, in two hours and 32 minutes.
Awesome Otto
Virtanen chalks up his biggest win ever 6-7(3) 7-6(4) 6-4 to down [5] Korda!@Open13 | #O13Provence pic.twitter.com/27gMMfYaIr
— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 10, 2025
The 6-foot-4-inch, 23-year-old from Hyvinkää, Finland, fired 19 aces and hit 46 winners overall – 22 of them from his forehand – compared to 11 aces and 37 winners for Korda. Virtanen converted three of five break points and outpointed Korda 113-112 in earning his first tour-level win of the season.
“I didn’t find a good rhythm [in the first set],” Virtanen said in his on-court interview. “He was playing well and was not allowing me to play my relaxed tennis. In the second set, I started hitting the ball better – getting used to the court – and playing better.”
Virtanen added: “[By the third set], I felt like I could return every ball. It was a big step in the returns. I tried to be focused on every serve, every point. I tried to return well and put pressure on the return games. It worked out really well.”
Next, Virtanen will face either No. 83 Luca Nardi of Italy or 80th-ranked Daniel Altmaier of Germany, who play Tuesday.
The BIGGEST win of his career
Otto Virtanen defeats Korda 6-7 7-6 6-4 to record his first Top 30 victory #open13provence pic.twitter.com/KQ0UHxJYV6
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 10, 2025
Sonego wins Marseille debut
The 35th-ranked Sonego began strongly against No. 85 Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands. Then, after a mid-match dip in his levels, he recovered nicely and put away the Dutch No. 2 on his fourth match-point opportunity. Sonego won 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, in an hour and 59 minutes.
Dream debut ✨
Sonego wins his first ever Marseille match 6-1 3-6 6-3 vs van de Zandschulp #open13provence pic.twitter.com/3YYGaFKVE0
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 10, 2025
Sonego hit 28 winners, including seven aces, and converted three of seven break points against van de Zandschulp. He outpointed his opponent 79-72. It was his ninth straight win against an opponent ranked outside the Top 50, while van de Zandschulp fell to 5-23 against Top-50 opponents on tour-level since the start of the 2024 season. He’s 0-4 to start the 2025 season, all first-round losses.
“It’s tough to play against him,” Sonego said of van de Zandschulp during his on-court interview. “He plays unbelievable some times. It’s tough to focus against him, to get any rhythm. I’m happy with the win today.”
Next, Sonego (7-4) will oppose a Frenchman, either the 64th-ranked Bonzi or 164th-ranked lucky loser Van Assche.
Sonego go go! ♂️
The Italian navigates past van de Zandschulp 6-1 3-6 6-3 ➡️ R2@Open13 | #O13Provence pic.twitter.com/qxBtFPup8E
— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 10, 2025
Medjedovic first Serbian winner in Marseille since 2018
The first player to advance to the second round was 96th-ranked Hamad Medjedovic of Serbia. The 21-year-old 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals champion defeated No. 122 Raphael Collignon of Belgium, 6-3, 6-4, in one hour and 27 minutes on Court Central in his Marseille debut. He’s the first Serbian winner at the Open 13 Provence since Filip Krajinovic in 2018.
Medjedovic, who won an ATP Challenger title at Oeiras, Portugal last month, hit 22 winners – including five aces – won 81 percent of his first-serve points, converted two of 10 break points and outpointed Collignon 77-58. While it was their first meeting at tour level, last year Collignon beat Medjedovic in a three-set Challenger match at Bratislava.
Solid performance @MedjedovicHamad defeats Collignon 6-3 6-4 in Marseille #open13provence pic.twitter.com/AQC82c4BPx
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 10, 2025
“Today, I felt really good on the court. He was also playing good,” Medjedovic said during his on-court interview. “It was a great match, great fan support, too. Today, I was lucky my serve was working. I was very relaxed. I enjoyed every moment. That’s the key to playing good tennis.”
While the young Serbian is just one season removed from his Next Gen ATP Finals title success, he admitted during his interview: “I’m just another guy trying to play good tennis.”
First round: Smooth sailing for @MedjedovicHamad vs Raphael Collignon 6-3 6-4
He will next play 2018 champ Karen Khachanov.
Photo @corinnedubreuil #open13provence #atptour pic.twitter.com/bJbCL38daS
— Open 13 Provence (@Open13) February 10, 2025
Next, Medjedkovic will face the No. 3 seed Khachanov of Russia, currently ranked 21st, in the second round.
Around the Palais des Sports de Marseille
The doubles draw began with three first-round matches on Monday. No. 3 seeds Andre Goransson of Sweden and Sem Verbeek of the Netherlands advanced to the quarterfinal round with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Reese Stalder of the United States and Marcus Willis of Great Britain. The Swedish/Dutch duo combined to hit four aces, dropped just two points on their serve, converted all three of their break-point chances and outpointed their opponents 55-32. Next, Goransson and Verbeek will face Manuel Guinard of France and Joran Vliegen of Belgium, who defeated Zizou Bergs of Belgium and Nuno Borges of Portugal, 6-4, 2-6, 11-9.
Also, French pair Benjamin Bonzi and Pierre-Hugues Herbert defeated Quentin Halys of France and Denys Molchanov of Ukraine, 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinal round. Next, they will face either No. 4 seeds Sander Arends of the Netherlands and Luke Johnson of Great Britain or Karol Drzewiecki and Piotr Matuszewski of Poland, who play Tuesday.
The top seeds in the 16-team doubles field are Hugo Nys of Monaco and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France, a three-time quarterfinalist on the ATP Tour this season who will face Robin Haase of the Netherlands and Hendrik Jebens of Germany in the first round on Tuesday. Rotterdam finalists Sander Gille of Belgium and Jan Zielinski of Poland are seeded second.
Monday’s Open 13 Provence results
Tuesday’s Open 13 Provence order of play
By the numbers
Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland is the oldest player in the singles draw at age 39. The youngest player is 19-year-old Luca Nardi of Italy.i
“Quotable …”
“It’s here where everything began, because I reached my first semifinal on Tour [here]. It’s really nice to win Marseille, it’s a good feeling.”
– Ugo Humbert of France, the 2024 Open 13 Provence champion. Humbert is 9-2 lifetime in Marseille.
