THE second day of main draw matches in Marseille and Delray Beach got underway with a mix of surprising and statement-making results.

DELRAY BEACH OPEN – DELRAY BEACH, UNITED STATES:

A number of tight three setters and two retirements marked a busy day at Delray Beach with the Round of 32 complete. Among the tight contests was British qualifier, Cameron Norrie downing third seed American, Taylor Fritz 6-4 6-7 6-4 in two hours and 12 minutes. The 24-year-old Brit won the first set in a tight one, before dropping the second in a tiebreaker, 7-4 before bouncing back to break again and win 6-4 6-7 6-4. Ranked 60th in the world, Norrie is far from an easy-beat and he showed it in the match, winning 78 per cent of his first serve points and more importantly, 59 per cent of his second serve points. He broke Fritz three times to the American’s once, and survived a barrage of aces from the third seed 22-year-old, as Fritz piled on 13 to six, and won 84 per cent of his first serve points. While his serving was strong, his return was not great, with a low return rating of just 86, winning just 28 per cent of points on Norrie’s serve.

In other results, fourth seed American, Reilly Opelka had to fight back from a set down to defeat Latvian qualifier, Ernests Gulbis 6-7 6-4 7-6 in three tight sets, as did sixth seed Frenchman, Ugo Humbert. The 21-year-old world number 44 defeated American lucky loser, Stefan Kozlov 6-7 6-3 6-1. In a much easier match, second seed Milos Raonic bounced back from a disappointing Round of 16 loss to Soonwoo Kwon at New York to smash Uzbekistani qualifier, Denis Istomin 6-2 6-2. Not needing to play out full matches, Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic and American qualifier, Noah Rubin both were ahead when their opponents – Jordan Thompson and Jason Jung respectively – retired. On Court 4, Cedrik-Marcel Stebe fought off a more determined Bernard Tomic 6-2 3-6 6-2, while Steve Johnson triumphed on home soil with a 7-6 6-4 win over Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen. In the later matches, wildcard Jack Sock stunned eighth seed Romanian and reigning title holder, Radu Albot, while rising United States talent, Tommy Paul downed Colombian lucky loser, Daniel Elahi Galan in straight sets.

ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:

[2] M. Raonic (CAN) defeated [LL] D. Istomin (UZB) 6-2 6-2
[Q] C. Norrie (GBR) defeated [3] T. Fritz (USA) 6-4 6-7 6-4
[4] R. Opelka (USA) defeated [Q] E. Gulbis (LAT) 6-7 6-4 7-6
[6] U. Humbert (FRA) defeated [LL] S. Kozlov (USA) 6-7 6-3 6-1
[WC] J. Sock (USA) defeated [8] R. Albot (ROU) 3-6 6-3 7-6
T. Paul (USA) defeated [LL] D. Galan (COL) 6-2 6-4
M. Kecmanovic (SRB) defeated J. Thompson (AUS) 6-2 RET
C. Stebe (GER) defeated [LL] B. Tomic (AUS) 6-2 3-6 6-2
S. Johnson (USA) defeated H. Laaksonen (SUI) 7-6 6-4
[Q] N. Rubin (USA) defeated J. Jung (TAI) 6-4 4-3 RET

OPEN 13 PROVENCE – MARSEILLE, FRANCE:

He might have lost, but rising French teenager Harold Mayot showed he is not too far off being a settled contributor on the ATP Tour, going down 6-4 7-6 to experienced compatriot Gilles Simon, on debut. Handed a wildcard, the French world number 509 took out the Australian Open Junior title, coming in as the number one seed at that tournament. He was handed a rough ATP Tour debut in his home country, but did not let anyone down with an admirable performance against a quality player. He pushed Simon for almost two hours and only went down 7-3 in the second set tiebreaker as it was just the more experienced Frenchman’s serving that was the difference. Simon produced nine aces and only dropped five points off his first serve, but Mayot still managed to break the 35-year-old once. Simon broke the teenager twice from six attempts, but was more effective upon return, winning 40 per cent of the points. Overall Simon was a bit too experienced for Mayot, after all Simon was a former top 10 player a decade ago. While he might be coming to the end of his career, his opponent’s is only getting started.

Along with Mayot, another French wildcard bowed out on home soil, as 24-year-old Antoine Hoang suffered defeat at the hands of rising Polish star, Hubert Hurkacz. The number eight seed won 6-4 6-1 fairly convincingly and moved through to the next round where he takes on red-hot Canadian Vasek Pospisil. The 29-year-old continued his rise back into the top 100 with a win over lucky loser, Emil Ruusuvuori 7-6 6-3 with Pospisil’s protected ranking not likely to be needed for much longer. In other results, Next Gen Finals winner Jannik Sinner built on his top 10 victory over David Goffin at Rotterdam to take down Slovakian qualifier, Norbert Gombos who is no slouch, having knocked off top 30 player, Pablo Carreno Busta in Montpellier last week. Elsewhere, Marin Cilic moved through in three sets against Belarusian qualifier, Ilya Ivashka 3-6 7-6 6-4 to set up a Round of 16 matchup with the out-of-sorts Denis Shapovalov, while Slovenian Alijaz Bedene caused the upset of the day against fifth seed Russian Karen Khachanov breaking the top 30 player in the final game of the match to win 4-6 6-4 7-5

ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:

A. Bedene (SLO) defeated [5] K. Khachanov (RUS) 4-6 6-4 7-5
[8] H. Hurkacz (POL) defeated [WC] A. Hoang (FRA) 6-4 6-1
J. Sinner (ITA) defeated [Q] N. Gombos (SVK) 6-4 7-6
M. Cilic (CRO) defeated [Q] I. Ivashka (BLR) 3-6 7-6 6-4
G. Simon (FRA) defeated [WC] H. Mayot (FRA) 6-4 7-6