Fourth seed Gilles Simon was made to work by wildcard Maximilian Marterer before reaching the second round of the German Tennis Championships in Hamburg.
The French world No.39 was taken to three sets by the German hopeful but eventually prevailed 6-2 4-6 6-4 in just over two hours to set up a clash with Philipp Kohlscreiber or Andrey Rublev.
Another Frenchman, world No.40 Benoit Paire, also progressed in the claycourt event as he saw off Russian veteran Dmitry Tursunov 6-3 6-2.
Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, the sixth seed, beat Austria's Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-2 6-3.
The host nation enjoyed some success with victories for German players Florian Mayer, Cedric-Marcel Stebe and Jan-Lennard Struff all advancing to the second round.
Struff eased past Russia's Evgeny Donskoy 6-3 6-4, Mayer beat Italian Marco Cecchinato 7-5 6-2 and Stebe beat fellow qualifier Damir Dzumhur 6-3 6-4.
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