ALL three French competitors have advanced through to the Round of 32 at the Paris ATP 1000 Masters in what will be the final non invite-only event left on tour. For a handful of top 40 players their seasons are over until the Australian summer whilst for others, their year still remains alive as they advanced through to the next stage of the tournament.

Ugo Humbert held off Casper Ruud in a three set come-from-behind victory, downing the Norwegian 4-6 6-2 7-6 in two hours and 11 minutes. The 34th ranked Humbert has every chance of moving past the second highest ranked Frenchman Benoit Paire with a good Masters, and he started off on the right note defeating the 27th ranked Ruud in an impressive but hard-fought performance. Both players won their first titles in 2020 – Humbert won his first two including one at Hamburg – with this match being the third between the pair at a 1-1 match. Back on Humbert’s favoured hard court, the 22-year-old was too strong off his serve, dominating with 84 and 67 per cent of his first and second serve points, also breaking twice from from two chances – both in the second set – and avoided any break point opportunities for his opponent after the first set. Humbert now takes on second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the next round.

Joining Humbert in the second round were compatriots and French wildcards, Corentin Moutet and Benjamin Bonzi. Moutet had to fight tooth-and-nail to defeat lucky loser Italian Salvatore Caruso, 3-6 7-6 6-3 in two hours and 31 minutes. Moutet was able to hold firm despite five aces from his opponent and 12 break point opportunities, winning four from eight himself to crucially win an additional break compared to his more experienced opponent. The 21-year-old levelled his ATP Tour win-loss record this year to move to 10-10 after the match. Bonzi had a much easier time of it, smashing Argentinian lucky loser Federico Coria in just 56 minutes, 6-2 6-1. The 24-year-old 180th ranked Bonzi made light work of his 93rd ranked opponent to serve eight aces and only drop three points off his first serve on his way to four breaks from five chances whilst saving the only break point opportunity he faced. It was not as positive for French teen Hugo Gaston, who suffered a straight sets defeat at the hands of top 20 player, Pablo Carreno Busta.

Meanwhile Hamburg finalist Alex de Minaur advanced through to the next round with a strong 6-4 6-4 triumph over Italian Stefano Travaglia. The Australian only dropped six points off his first serve and capitalised off the Italian’s second serve to win 65 per cent of those points, and break on both opportunities. De Minaur held firm on his own serve facing three break points and was able to join fellow Australian Jordan Thompson in the second round. Thompson knocked over Argentinian qualifier, Federico Delbonis 6-2 6-3 in an hour and 18 minutes on court, serving five aces and only dropping 11 points on serve. The 61st ranked Thompson never looked like losing, and broke Delbonis four times in an impressive win.

Borna Coric earned his spot in the Round of 32 with a 7-6 6-1 victory over Hungarian Marton Fucsovics. The match lasted an hour and 46 minutes before the top 30 player could hold off the Hungarian, with the latter having a good season thanks to a 14-9 record on Tour. Coric produced five aces and won 73 per cent of his first serve points off a 75 per cent clip, whilst breaking three times to one, racing away in the final set to only drop seven points on serve in that set. Coric said it was a tough encounter despite the scoreline for the second set.

“It was not an easy match and every time we have played it’s been very tough,” he said post-match. “It’s always been a very physical match. In the tie-break, I went for my shots that maybe weren’t logical, but it paid off. In the second set, I started to play much better and played at quite a high level at the end. I played one bad game at 2-1 in the first set, when I missed two first serves, but pretty much the rest of the time I was serving huge. I feel like I’m starting to play some good tennis.”

In other results, wily veteran Feliciano Lopez will take on top seed and compatriot Rafael Nadal in the Round of 32 after a 7-6 6-1 win over Serbian Filip Krajinovic. The second set went to 13-11 before Lopez got up, then the Spaniard went on to crush his highly fancied opponent in the second set for a total match time of 84 minutes. Meanwhile it was not as good news for Spanish teammate Albert Ramos-Vinolas who lost to American qualifier Marcos Giron in the first round, going down in three sets, 6-3 4-6 6-1. Also through to the next round was Macedonian lucky loser Radu Albot who shocked Polish talent Hubert Hurkacz in three sets, 7-5 6-7 6-4, whilst Jan-Lennard Struff finally broke through for a win, this time against Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4 6-2, and Slovakian qualifier Norbert Gombos took care of fellow qualifier Marco Cecchinato, 6-2 7-6. In the late matches, Marin Cilic took care of Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-0 3-6 6-3, whilst Karen Khachanov and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina were locked in a tight tussle at the time of publishing.

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