Troicki dumps out Ernests Gulbis

Sofia : Sixth seed Viktor Troicki ended the hopes of former world number 10 Ernests Gulbis with victory in their first-round clash at the Sofia Open in Bulgaria.

Latvian Gulbis, now ranked 199, had come through qualifying by beating Florian Mayer but despite forcing a deciding set, he was defeated by Troicki as the Serbian progressed 6-3 6-7 (2/7) 6-3.

German Mayer had also made it into the first-round draw as a lucky loser, but went down 6-4 6-1 to Mirza Basic of Bosnia.

Slovak Martin Klizan beat Alexander Donski of Bulgaria 7-5 6-1 to set up a second-round contest against top seed Stan Wawrinka, the Swiss world number 15.

Denis Istomin defeated Adrian Andreev 6-3 6-4, and the Uzbek player will next face Troicki, while qualifier Jozef Kovalik progressed after beating Radu Albot 6-3 6-3.

Tuesday’s late match saw number seven seed David Ferrer of Spain suffer a surprise defeat to Russian Karen Khachanov as the 21-year-old won through 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-4.