BENOIT Paire‘s forgettable ATP Tour season in 2020 continued today in the Astana Open in Nur-Sultan after the top seed Frenchman and world number 28 bowed out to home nation hope, Mikhail Kukushkin. Since August when the Tour resumed, Paire has won one match, retired twice, and even had a positive COVID-19 test to miss the US Open amongst six losses. His run to the ASB Classic final back in January seems a far shout away from his now 4-11 record since then.

After winning the first set in a tiebreaker 7-4, Paire was returned the favour in the second set, losing the tiebreaker 7-2, before going down in two hours and 14 minutes to Kukushkin, 6-7 7-6 6-1. Paire’s bad form is to take nothing away from the gritty world number 91 Kazakh, who weathered Paire’s serve of 13 aces and 10 double faults to win 69 and 53 per cent of his first and second service points off a 72 per cent clip.

He broke four times to two, including storming away with control in the final set where he broke Paire three times and the Frenchman could not capitalise on either of the two break point opportunities presented to him. It was arguably one of the worst serving performances on Tour for that third set with Paire winning just six points for the set, two of which were aces and he only served at a 43 per cent efficiency to begin with, which meant trouble.

It was better news for Paire’s French compatriot in Adrian Mannarino who easily took out Japan’s Yuichi Sugita, 6-1 6-1 to advance through to the quarter finals. Mannarino looked in solid form, serving six aces at 63 per cent efficiency, while only dropping the seven points on serve, and critically just one off the first serve. That meant it was hard for Sugita to do anything upon return, not even creating a break point opportunity as Mannarino brought up 13 break point chances, converting five of them in a 61-minute rout.

The third seed will now face American Mackenzie McDonald who knocked out Italian wildcard Andreas Seppi 3-6 6-3 6-3 to advance through to the last eight. McDonald has to fight back from dropping the first set against the 36-year-old to post his fourth ATP Tour win of the year, doubling his total in Nur-Sultan. He was more consistent off serve with seven aces to one, and recording an efficiency on 63 per cent. McDonald also broke six times to four which proved the difference in the final two sets, winning by a break in each set in a total of two hours and two minutes.

In the final Round of 16 match completed, Next-Gen Finnish talent Emil Ruusuvuori completed a three-set win over eighth seed Australian Jordan Thompson. Ruusuvuori won 6-2 3-6 6-4 to book his spot in the final eight and set up a clash with Kukushkin tomorrow. He served six aces to four, and while both players won 78 per cent of their first serve points, Ruusuvuori held firm off his second serve, winning 56 per cent of his points compared to 41 per cent. He also broke four times to two, making more of his chances, which allowed the 21-year-old to advance through to the next round,

Tomorrow’s quarter finals begin with yesterday’s winners up first as Egor Gerasimov takes on Frances Tiafoe, and the all-seeded battle between Tommy Paul and John Millman kick off the day. Mannarino and McDonald’s clash will come third up, before an evening battle between Kukushkin and Ruusuvuori to end the match play on Centre Court.

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