Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev’s Paris Masters run lasted just one match as the two were stunned in the second round of the competition by Tommy Paul and Alex de Minaur respectively.
Making his return to competitive tennis for the first time since the birth of his son, Nadal looked short of match fitness with the American Paul winning 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1. The number 2 seed was also error-prone making 19 unforced errors and dropping his serve three times in the decider.
There may be some silver lining for Nadal in his ouster from Paris Masters in that he has some time to spend on the practice courts before the ATP Finals begin in 10 days’ time.
Meanwhile, Daniil Medvedev did not fare better in his match either losing 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 to Australia’s Alex de Minaur for the first time in five meetings.
He will next take on Francis Tiafoe who beat Jack Draper 6-3, 7-5.
There were no slipups from the top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz who downed Yoshihito Nishioka 6-4, 6-4 as he continues his chase for the year-end No. 1 ranking. He will take on Grigor Dimitrov next who eased past lucky loser Fabio Fognini 6-0, 7-5.
The second round of the tournament also confirmed the final participants of the ATP Finals with Felix Auger-Aliassime and Andrey Rublev qualifying at the expense of Taylor Fritz and Hubert Hurkacz who lost their matches.
Eighth-seeded Auger-Aliassime outlasted qualifier Mikael Ymer 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (6) to next play wild-card entry Gilles Simon, who extended his improbable run with a win over ninth-seeded Fritz 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
Carlos Alcaraz, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Casper Ruud, Daniil Medvedev, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic had already qualified for the eight-man tournament in Turin from Nov. 13-20.
