Frenchman Gilles Simon managed to stave off retirement for at least another day after beating Andy Murray in a day full of surprises at the Paris Masters.
The wildcard battled back from a set down to beat Britain’s Murray 4-6 7-5 6-3.
Backed by the support of the home crowd, the 37-year-old rallied from 3-5 down in the second set to launch a remarkable comeback to even the match before keeping his composure in the longer rallies of the decider to notch his 503rd career win.
The road for Gilles Simon, who is retiring after the Paris Masters, is about to get much tougher though as he faces American Taylor Fritz in the next round.
Fritz, meanwhile, still in contention for the ATP Finals berth, beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-5 6-2 behind his trusty serve to reach the next round.
The American needs to reach the finals of the ATP 1000 event to stand a chance of reaching the season-ending event ahead of Andrey Rublev or Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Swiss qualifier Marc-Andrea Huesler delivered another surprise on the day with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Jannik Sinner despite being ranked 49 places below the Italian.
The American contingent in Paris continued to have a good time with John Isner earning a 6-4 7-6(3) win over Germany’s Oscar Otte and Francis Tiafoe easily getting past Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 6-4.
Richard Gasquet, Maxime Cressy, Lorenzo Musetti, Nikoloz Basilashvili, Mikael Ymer, Yoshihito Nishioka and Alex de Minaur also earned wins in their first-round matches.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic, world number one Carlos Alcaraz, a returning Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev all have received a bye into the second round.
