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Heavy rain washed out play on Sunday and Monday so first round action at the Open de Nice Cote d'Azur finally got underway in earnest on Tuesday. The top four seeds - John Isner, Gilles Simon, Nicolas Almagro and Gael Monfils all had first round byes and will be seen in action on Wednesday. There were four seeds in action on Tuesday with 5th seed Bernard Tomic and 7th seed Denis Istomin making their way into round 2, while sixth seed Robin Haase and eighth seed Fabio Fognini bit the dust.

Tuesday's best match was undoubtedly the one between Juan Carlos Ferrero and sixth-seed Robin Haase. The former World no.1 saved a match point in a nail biting contest and progressed to the second round with a 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6) win over Haase. After losing the first set, the Spaniard fought back in the second set and survived a match point in the tie-break to push the match to a third set. The deciding set was almost an action replay of the second only this time Ferrero had the match point and he took his chance after battling it out with Haase for over two and a half hours. Ferrero will meet Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in the second round today.

In his first round, Bellucci played a lopsided three-setter with David Young. The Brazilian went down in the first set tie-break but went on to demolish Young 6-7, 6-0, 6-3.

The surprise semi-finalist in Rome, 8th seed Fabio Fognini was bundled out by Belgian Steve Darcis, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 in the first round. Fognini's inability to take his chances helped Darcis to edge past the Italian.

Meanwhile, Australian teen sensation, Bernard Tomic cruised past Lukas Lacko 6-2, 6-3 in his opening round. It took Tomic a little over an hour to see off his Slovakian opponent. Tomic attained his highest career rank of 28 last week and a good finish in Nice will help him kick off his French Open campaign on a positive note. The Australian will face Mikhail Kukushkin in the second round. The Kazakh downed Sam Ouerrey 6-2, 7-5 in his first rounder.

In other results, Xavier Malisse shot past Yen-Hsun Lu on Monday 7-5, 6-4. The World no. 80 will meet John Isner in the second round. This should be an interesting match as Isner, the top seed in the tournament,  has lost both his meetings with the Belgian in the past. The American needs a confident win on clay before he enters the French Open on Sunday.

Nikolay Davydenko defeated Matthew Ebden to set up a meeting with seventh-seed Denis Istomin in the second round. The Uzbek ousted Alejandro Falla of Columbia 7-6, 1-6, 6-1 to advance to the next round. The defending champion, Nicolas Almagro will play his opening match tonight with Frenchman EdouardRoger-Vasselin.

First Round Scores:

Juan Carlos Ferrero def (6) Robin Haase 4-6, 7-6, 7-6
Thomaz Bellucci def David Young 6-7,6-0,6-3
(5) Bernard Tomic def Lukas Lacko 6-2, 6-3
Nikolay Davydenko def Matthew Ebden 6-3,6-3
(7) Denis Istomin def Alejandro Falla 7-6,1-6,6-1
Steve Darcis def (8) Fabio Fognini 7-6, 7-5
Xavier Malisse def Yen-Hsun Lu 7-5,6-4