Gilles Simon was pushed all the way before finally topping Simone Bolelli in the first round of the Grand Priz de Tennis de Lyon.
Home favourite Simon needed more than two hours to see off the Italian 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/5).
The Frenchman fired 14 aces but Bolelli hung tough to drag the game out.
Another Frenchman through to the second round is Paul-Henri Mathieu, with the sixth-seed beating Argentina's Leonardo Mayer 7-6 (7/5) 6-2.
Nicolas Kiefer came f! rom behind to beat wildcard Sebastian Grosjean 4-6 7-6 (9/7) 7-6 (6/2) in a two-and-a-half hour epic, while Olivier Rochus made much lighter work of beating Frenchman Vincent Millot 6-3 6-2.
The second round is already under way, with fifth seed Julien Benneteau beating qualifier Kelvin Anderson 7-5 6-2, and Florent Serra topped Albert Montanes 7-5 6-3.
