19 February 2013 | Tennis West

Bernard Tomic has won his opening match at the Open 13 in Marseille, France, recovering from the loss of the first set and a final set tiebreak deficit to move through to the second round.

Tomic upset eighth seed Martin Klizan of Slovakia, coming back from 3-1 down in the third set breaker to record a 4-6 6-3 7-6(7) victory in one hour and 46 minutes.

Very little separated the pair on the stats sheet, yet Tomic was undoubtedly able to draw on the reserves of confidence built by his run to the Sydney title in January and which had contributed to a sparkling 7-2 start to the season.

It was the Australian’s first win since reaching the third round at Australian Open 2013, and sets up a second round match against either Frenchman Benoit Paire or India’s Somdev Devvarman.

No.3 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga lurks as a potential quarterfinal opponent.