De Minaur stuns Medvedev at Paris Masters
PARIS (AP) — Alex de Minaur upset fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 in the second round of the Paris Masters on Wednesday.
After rallying from a 2-0 deficit in the final set, De Minaur failed to convert his first two match points at 5-4. He hit a return out on the first match point and made an unforced error on the second.
But the Australian got two more chances at 6-5. Medvedev saved the third match point with a service winner before double-faulting on the fourth and angrily throwing his racket to the ground.
"I'm glad I played a very tactical match,” De Minaur told Tennis Channel. “I just tried to wait for my right ball and just back myself and back my volley. It’s something that I tried to implement a lot more. I don’t do it as often as I would like, but I’ve got some decent volleys.”
Medvedev, who won the Paris Masters in 2020 and was runner-up last year, dropped serve in the first set by overhitting a smash in the final game. But the Russian capitalized on unforced errors by De Minaur to break twice in the second set.
De Minaur beat Medvedev for the first time in five meetings. He will next play Frances Tiafoe, who beat Jack Draper 6-3, 7-5.
Carlos Alcaraz, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Lorenzo Musetti also advanced to the third round.
The top-seeded Alcaraz downed Yoshihito Nishioka 6-4, 6-4 to rack up more points in his chase for the year-end No. 1 ranking.
Alcaraz lost a break in the eighth game but hit a forehand pass on the run to break again for a 5-4 lead before grabbing the first set with a forehand winner.
The Spaniard whipped another forehand winner to take Nishioka’s serve at 4-4 in the second set.
The fifth-seeded Tsitsipas beat Daniel Evans 6-3, 6-4 to lead the ATP tour with 58 wins this year while Musetti defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 6-2 to next face third-seeded Casper Ruud.
The eighth-seeded Auger-Aliassime extended his winning streak to 14 matches by outlasting qualifier Mikael Ymer 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (6).
Tsitsipas raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set. He then hit a forehand winner across court to break Evans in the opening game of the second, before converting his first match point with an ace.
“I’m happy with the level of tennis I brought when I had to,” Tsitsipas said. “I was moving well, I was dictating well. I combined everything, including my defense, the transition to offense. I was serving well, I was very calm in important moments, and it paid off.”
Auger-Aliassime is getting closer to qualifying for the ATP Finals as he is ahead of Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz and Hubert Hurkacz in the race for the two remaining spots.
Alcaraz, Tsitsipas, Ruud, Medvedev, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic have already qualified for the eight-man tournament.
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