Jerzy Janowicz defeats Dustin Brown at Open Sud de France first round

Jerzy Janowicz had to fend off six match points to avoid a first-round shock against Dustin Brown at the Open Sud de France on Monday.

Janowicz - ranked 50 spots above Brown - reached the semi-final finals in Montpellier 12 months ago, but the Pole had to dig deep to secure a 2-6 7-6 (7-1) 7-5 victory.

The fifth seed started his great escape in the second set as Brown first saw two chances to clinch victory go begging at 5-3, before he wasted another pair of opportunities when serving for the match in the next game.

Having recovered to level the match on a tie-break, Janowicz again had to dig deep to save two match points with Brown serving at 6-5 in the decider.

Again, though, Janowicz - who hit 14 aces - fought back and he progressed against the German in a time of one hour and 47 minutes.

Seventh seed Joao Sousa faced no such difficulty as he progressed to the second round thanks to a 6-2 6-4 victory over French wildcard Laurent Lokoli.

Given the 164-place different between the pair in the rankings, it was no real surprise that Sousa needed just 68 minutes to reach the second round - saving all three break-point opportunities in the match.

Sousa broke twice in the first set and, while Lokoli mustered six aces in the second, it mattered little as the Portuguese won the pair's first career meeting.

The 25-year-old will now face Tobias Kamke in the second round after the German came from a set down to defeat another French wildcard in the form of Vincent Millot.

Kamke - who bowed out of the Australian Open at the first hurdle to Bernard Tomic recently - appeared on course to do the same when world number 175 Millot took the first set with the help of two late breaks.

While Millot fought back from 3-1 down to level in the second, he was ultimately pegged back before losing out in a topsy-turvy final set as Kamke gained his first win of the season 2-6 6-3 7-5.