Dustin Brown in tears after heartbreaking injury retirement

Tennis cult hero Dustin Brown has burst into tears after suffering a devastating injury on the verge of victory.

Brown moved to within three points of victory against Nicolas Mahut at the Open Sud de France when he collapsed with a back injury.

The German pulled off a brilliant one-handed backhand winner, but the injury sustained in the process forced him to retire and sent the Frenchman into a second-round match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Brown couldn't contain his disappointment, with tears streaming down his face as he made his way off court.

Meanwhile, David Goffin's return to the ATP Tour after a disappointing showing at the Australian Open produced a comfortable 6-4 6-2 victory over Gilles Simon.

The World No.7 was beaten by Julien Benneteau in the second round in Melbourne, but, after a pair of Davis Cup singles victories in Belgium's tie with Hungary, was back on song as he saw off Simon in one hour and 24 minutes.

The top seeded Belgian dropped his first service game and twice failed to consolidate breaks before finally doing so at the third attempt to clinch the opening set.

There was no way back for Simon after he passed up two opportunities to serve out the first game of the second set, handing Goffin an advantage he would not relinquish.

Richard Gasquet and Andrey Rublev advanced in straight sets, but eighth seed Yuichi Sugita went down 5-7 6-3 6-4 to John Millman, while there were wins for Ruben Bemelmans and Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

with Omnisport