Monfils shines in a full house Center Court

The 'Family Day' at the Mallorca Championships presented by waterdrop® was a success on Monday, with the centre court at the Mallorca Country Club showing an impressive 3,500 seats sold out.

An unprecedented fact in the four editions of the tournament at this stage of a first round in which the Frenchman Gael Monfils won the star match of the day against Dominic Thiem (6/3, 7/6[3]).

The Austrian played perhaps his last match in Spain after announcing that he will end his professional career at the end of the season. The 30-year-old US Open champion (2020) received a well-deserved on-court tribute led by Edwin Weindorfer, CEO and founder of e|motion.

Both Spanish players who took to the court failed to advance beyond the first round. Mallorcan Jaume Munar lost in the third set tiebreak to Austrian Sebastian Ofner (3/6, 6/4, 7/6[4]), while Pedro Martinez lost to Italian Luciano Darderi (7/5, 7/5).

Meanwhile, Italy's Fabio Fognini (7/6 [4], 7/6 [5] to Gijs Bouwler), Australia's Rinky Hijikata (6/2, 2/6, 7/5 to Luca Nardi) and Kazakhstan's Alexander Shevchenko (7/5, 7/6 [5] to Constant Lestienne) all advanced.

Upsets in the doubles draw

The day brought two surprises with the elimination of top seeds Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen (2) against Dustin Brown and Daniel Masur (6/4 and 7/6 [4]), and Robin Haase and Andres Molteni (4) at the hands of Jualin Cash and Robert Galloway (7/6 [2]), 3/6 and 10-7).

The defending champion enters the stage

American Christopher Eubanks begins his title defence on Tuesday against Czech Jakub Mensuk (13:00) on a centre court that will also host the match between Spaniard Roberto Bautista and second seeded Frenchman Ugo Humbert (15:30). The day will end with another Spaniard, Roberto Carballés, taking on Monfils (18:00).