Adam Pavlasek needed two hours and 24 minutes to upset Ryan Harrison 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-6(5) in the first round of qualifying at Roland Garros on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old Czech, who reached a career-high No. 72 in the ATP Rankings on 9 January 2017, fired 42 winners to overcome the ninth-seeded American in a final-set tie-break. Pavlasek entered Roland Garros qualifying after achieving his best result of the year on the ATP Challenger Tour earlier this month.

Two weeks ago, the 6’1″ right-hander reached the Roma Garden Open semi-finals before falling to Gian Marco Moroni. Pavlasek will meet Geoffrey Blancaneaux for a spot in the final round of qualifying. The Frenchman beat Andrea Arnaboldi of Italy 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3.

Top seed Tennys Sandgren defeated Yosuke Watanuki 6-2, 6-4 to reach the second qualifying round. The ASB Classic champion converted four of 10 break points and will face Mats Moraing of Germany for a place in the final qualifying round. Moraing beat Andrej Martin 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

Adrian Menendez-Maceiras defeated 18th seed Alex Bolt 6-2, 6-2. The Spaniard will meet Daniel Elahi Galan, who edged Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 54 minutes.

Enzo Couacaud recovered from a set down to stun third seed Paolo Lorenzi 4-6, 6-4, 6-0. The 24-year-old Frenchman will next face Arthur De Greef, who beat Ilya Marchenko 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.

Go Soeda cruised past 27th seed Facundo Bagnis of Argentina 6-1, 6-2. The Tokyo resident fired 19 winners to reach the second qualifying round after 64 minutes.

The critics and doubters be damned, Taylor Fritz was going to prove to everyone that he could play on clay this season.

For years, the American with a relatively flat, powerful game thought he had never reached his full potential during the European clay-court swing. Two years ago, he skipped the entire stretch to train, and in other years, he started playing midway through the swing, only finding his best game as the main clay-court season ended.

But this year, Fritz had a request to his coaches, David Nainkin and Paul Annacone, as they devised his schedule: Put me in, coach.

“He’s trying to prove to us that he loves the clay,” Nainkin told ATPTour.com.

His coaches listened, entering him into a tournament every week of the clay-court swing, and Fritz has become a man of his word: The 21-year-old American has beaten some of the game’s leading clay-court players, including Argentine Guido Pella, this season’s clay-court wins leader and Brasil Open champion, and Internazionali BNL d’Italia semi-finalist Diego Schwartzman, a two-time clay-court titlist.

Fritz has brought his high level to Lyon this week as well, beating Czech qualifier Jiri Vesely in straight sets to set up a second-round meeting against sixth seed and home favourite Richard Gasquet.

“I think that people just work it out in their heads that [clay] is not for me, even though the results will say otherwise,” Fritz said. “I’m glad I listened to myself… because it’s working well.”

The 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier has a few theories as to why people have thought of the clay season as a good time for him to train or rest rather than play and win.

No. 1: He’s from the United States, which has struggled of late to produce clay-court champions who can win “Big Titles”. For instance, Andre Agassi was the last American to win a clay-court ATP Masters 1000 title, in 2002 (Rome).

Fritz, with his big serve and big forehand, also hardly has the game that conjures up a clay-court champion, someone sliding around the red dirt and chasing down every ball.

But the 6’4” right-hander was the 2015 Roland Garros junior boys finalist, and he’s always felt comfortable on the surface.

“It suits my game a lot. It surprises people, but it doesn’t really surprise me, especially with the more I’m learning on clay,” Fritz said.

He can produce more spin on his forehand on the red dirt, and the ball bounces up higher, teeing up his best shot. The slower bounce off the clay also helps him stay in more rallies.

“It puts more emphasis on the groundstrokes, which, from the baseline, when I have time, is one of my best strengths as a player,” he said.

Nainkin, one of his coaches, says Fritz’s increased strength, which has helped him stay in longer rallies, and his clean ball-hitting abilities also especially help him on clay.

“He’s got great timing and great timing leads to the ability to change direction earlier than your opponent, which puts you in an offensive position,” Nainkin said. “The men’s game gets to a point of, who has better positioning and who can go down the line first with more authority? And when Taylor is playing his best, that’s what he produces, even on the clay.”

In past years, though, Fritz has hardly had a chance to show off those strengths on clay. During the last three years, he’s played only nine clay-court events, a number he’ll nearly match this year alone. So far, the American has played all seven weeks of the main clay-court season, with Roland Garros still to come.

He started in Houston, then went to Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, Estoril, Madrid, Rome and now Lyon, where he made the quarter-finals last season. Fritz is 6-6 so far, with his best run coming at the season’s first Masters 1000 on clay, the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, where he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Schwartzman before falling to No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the third round.

Four of Fritz’s six losses have come to Djokovic and No. 7 Kei Nishikori of Japan.

“It’s a little bit upsetting to constantly be losing to these guys, but I just need to keep working. I think once I beat one of these guys the floodgates will open, and I’ll start doing it more consistently,” said Fritz, who is 2-12 lifetime against Top 10 players.

Watch From 2017 Uncovered: Fritz Introduces His Family

Through the wins and the losses, though, Fritz has had company. His wife, Raquel, and their two-year-old son, Jordan, have been with him the entire time he’s been in Europe.

They have made proving everyone wrong and playing well on the clay that much more enjoyable.

“By this time, I would have been really missing my family and missing being with Jordan, so it’s good that every single day I can see him at the courts, be with him as much as I possibly can,” Fritz said.

“I’m always in a good mood… It’s impossible for me not to be smiling and happy when he’s around, because he’s just so funny. He’s at that age where he’s talking a lot. He’s so cute and so funny. It’s just been a big help.”

Felix Auger-Aliassime earned his first victory at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon on Tuesday, beating John Millman 7-6(3), 7-5.

The #NextGenATP Canadian, competing at a career high No. 28 in the ATP Rankings this week, saved all five break points he faced to advance after one hour and 48 minutes. Auger-Aliassime is through to the last eight of an ATP Tour clay-court event for the third time this season, having reached the Rio Open presented by Claro final (l. to Djere) and Brasil Open quarter-finals (l. to Djere) earlier this year.

“It feels good [to playing in Lyon]. I’ve been around the last two years, and seeing people that I’ve seen before and good memories, it’s always good, especially as a young guy on Tour, to be able to come into tournaments and already have good memories of the city. It feels good,” said Auger-Aliassime. “I felt from the first steps that I did on the court, I felt like the public was going to be behind me so that was a great feeling.”

In his 30th tour-level encounter of the year (18-11), the 18-year-old will meet Steve Johnson for a spot in the semi-finals. Johnson advanced to his second ATP Tour quarter-final of the season after beating seventh seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-1. The 29-year-old American broke serve on four occasions to level his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Herbert at 1-1.

“Tennis is a weird sport. It’s a game of inches, it really is,” said Johnson. “In the second set, I had break point and then he hit a let-cord forehand, and then the ball didn’t bounce… At the start of the third set, I was able to capitalise on the first break point and then probably shouldn’t have broken in the second game, and was lucky enough to do so and then was able to close it out.”

View Lyon Singles & Doubles Draws

Benoit Paire needed two hours to overcome Mackenzie McDonald 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-1. The World No. 51 landed 16 aces and won 78 per cent of first-serve points (47/60) to earn his first victory at the event.

“It was not easy at the beginning of the match. Mackenzie is a good player. He played very flat. It is not easy to play against him, even on clay. That is why I am very happy to win today, because it is never easy to beat Mackenzie. It was a good first round, [I am] very happy to win in three sets and it is good for the preparation for Roland Garros,” said Paire.

Paire is aiming to lift his second ATP Tour title of the year, following his run to the Grand Prix Hassan II trophy last month. The 30-year-old will meet Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay for a spot in the quarter-finals.

“I feel good on clay. Honestly, since the beginning of the year, I feel good,” said Paire. “I won a tournament. I made the final in an ATP Challenger Tour [event] against [Pablo] Andujar, it was a good match. So, honestly, for me, everything is good.”

One service break in each set was enough for Cuevas to reach the second round. The Millennium Estoril Open runner-up (l. to Tsitsipas) took 83 minutes to eliminate eighth-seeded Pole Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 6-4.

French wild card Corentin Moutet saved two match points to edge Reilly Opelka of the United States 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(10) in two hours and 14 minutes. Moutet now plays second seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain.

“I tried to do my best on his serve, which is difficult to return,” Moutet told ATPTour.com. “I was trying to put the ball back on return. I had two match points on my serve and I missed it, so mentally it was tough. I had great support from the crowd. It’s always special playing in front of a French crowd.”

Did You Know?
Auger-Aliassime is the youngest player to be ranked inside the Top 30 in the ATP Rankings since Lleyton Hewitt (No. 22) in 1999.

Federico Delbonis recovered from a set down to record his first victory against Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open.

The 28-year-old Argentine, who entered the first-round match with a 0-2 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Dimitrov, converted all five break points he earned to record a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory after one hour and 36 minutes. The 2015 semi-finalist (l. to Sousa) will meet defending champion Marton Fucsovics in the second round.

Last year, Fucsovics defeated Peter Gojowczyk in the championship match to become the first Hungarian to lift a tour-level title since 1982. Delbonis and Fucsovics have never met on the ATP Tour.

Dimitrov was appearing in the main draw after successfully navigating his first qualifying draw since the 2012 Rolex Paris Masters. The 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion, who is searching for form after a right shoulder injury, had to take a wild card into qualifying after the three available main draw wild cards had already been allocated to Stan Wawrinka, Feliciano Lopez and Janko Tipsarevic.

“This week there has been a lot of focus on different things for me. Not so much on the results. I am trying new things, different positions on the court, different varieties of play and just pushing myself to a different game plan. I must admit, the first set was really good,” said Dimitrov.

“I was very, very happy with the way that I was able to execute and, for sure, in the second and third sets, I was clearly not doing the things the same as I was doing in the first set… For me, it is a positive, to be honest. This week has been great. I have been practising every single day and haven’t had one day off. I can put a lot into the storage right now for Roland Garros and obviously get out there and try to have better results.”

Portugal’s Joao Sousa, the 2015 finalist, won 80 per cent of his first-service points (51/64) to beat Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-4 in two hours and 17 minutes. Sousa will next face Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who recorded his third clay-court victory against sixth seed Adrian Mannarino 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-2. Ramos-Vinolas served for the first set at 6-5, and later recovered from an 0-2 deficit in the deciding set.