Daniil Medvedev in action© AFP
Former world number one Daniil Medvedev kickstarted his campaign at the Paris Masters on Tuesday with a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 win over Spaniard Jaume Munar. The 2020 Paris Masters champion began briskly on the vast centre court of the event’s new La Defense Arena home, claiming the opening set in under half-an-hour. Eleventh seed Medvedev then secured the crucial break in the sixth game of the second set and served out to set up a second-round meeting with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Earlier, Canadian ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime kept alive his hopes of qualifying for the ATP Finals in Turin with a comeback 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-3 victory over Argentinian Francisco Comesana.
Auger-Aliassime is ninth in the race for the eight-place tournament and needs a deep run in the French capital to make his second career appearance at the season-ending tournament.
Shock Shanghai Masters winner Valentin Vacherot raised the roof on the 17,500-capacity centre court as he continued his remarkable form in the opening match of the day.
The Monegasque wildcard beat Czech 14th seed Jiri Lehecka 6-1, 6-3 in under an hour, and will next meet his cousin Arthur Rinderknech in a repeat of the Shanghai final earlier in October.
Canadian Gabriel Diallo beat Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4 and France’s Corentin Moutet fought past American lucky loser Reilly Opelka in three sets.
In the night session, Spanish world number one Carlos Alcaraz will play his first match of the tournament when he meets Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the round of 32.
Fourth seed Taylor Fritz will round out the day’s action against Australian qualifier Aleksandar Vukic.
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