Fourth-seeded Florian Mayer, No. 5 seed Bjorn Phau, No. 12 seed Nicolas Lapentti, No. 13 seed Albert Portas and No. 14 seed Marc Gicquel were casualties, as first round qualifying for the 2006 Masters Series Monte-Carlo presented by ROLEX, got underway on Saturday.

German Mayer, currently ranked No. 70 in the INDESIT ATP Rankings, lost to Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 7-5, 6-1 in 61 minutes on Court 9. Phau retired with an injury, with Russian Evgeny Korolev leading 5-7, 6-3, 4-1.

Spanish 32-year-old Albert Portas was edged out by Monaco wild card Benjamin Balleret 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 and Italian Federico Luzzi accounted for Gicquel 7-6(3), 6-1.

Flavio Cipolla of Italy finally ended Lapentti's participation in the competition with a 7-5, 6-3 first round victory that saw both players leave the court on two occasions due to rain.

Rain suspended play for the first time at 15:30 CET, but No. 2 seed Daniele Bracciali and No. 3 seed Jonas Bjorkman were already safely back in the locker room.

Bracciali beat Denis Gremelmayr of Germany 6-4, 7-6(6) and former World No. 4 Bjorkman defeated Olivier Patience of France 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. Top-seeded Novak Djokovic joined the pair in the second round with a hard-fought victory over Serbian Nenad Zimonjic.

As Patience exited the qualification tournament for the third ATP Masters Series event of 2006, French woe continued.

Local supporters had little to cheer about when No. 9 seed Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic knocked out Thierry Ascione 6-4, 7-6(2).

Eighth-seeded Italian Alessio Di Mauro booked his place in the second round as Jean-Christophe Faurel retired with an injury while trailing 2-5.

The French exodus continued with Italian Federico Luzzi brushing aside No. 14 seed Marc Gicquel 7-6(3), 6-1 and wild card Alexandre Sidorenko, ranked No. 622 in the INDESIT ATP Rankings, fell to No. 10 seed Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-0, 6-2 in 46 minutes.