Thiem, Tomic Advance In Paris
Two of the ATP World Tour’s rising stars reached the second round of the BNP Paribas Masters on Monday in Paris as Dominic Thiem and Bernard Tomic both enjoyed victories. Both Thiem and Tomic are nominated for the ATP Most Improved Player of the Year.
World No. 19 Thiem finished strongly to defeat home hope Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 in one hour and 52 minutes. The 22-year-old Austrian claimed his 36th win of the season as he broke serve four times and saved five of the six break points he faced at the Palais Omnisports. He goes on to face 11th seed Kevin Anderson in the second round.
Bernard Tomic set a clash with fourth seed Stan Wawrinka as he dismissed Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-2 in 56 minutes. The Australian is at a career-high World No. 18 in the Emirates ATP Rankings after compiling a 40-26 mark in 2015, highlighted by capturing his third ATP World Tour title in Bogota (d. Mannarino).
Eighth seed David Ferrer will open his campaign against Alexandr Dolgopolov, who defeated Jiri Vesely 6-3, 7-6(6) in 81 minutes. Meanwhile, Andreas Seppi will take on last week’s Basel champion, Roger Federer, after beating Pablo Cuevas 7-5, 6-3, and Thomaz Bellucci will challenge World No. 1 Novak Djokovic after dismissing Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 6-4.
Grigor Dimitrov never faced a break point in downing Pablo Carreno Busta 6-4, 6-1 in one hour and seven minutes, totaling six aces with one double fault.
Also advancing on Monday in Paris were qualifier Dusan Lajovic (d. Nicolas Mahut 7-5, 6-3) and Aljaz Bedene (d. Marcel Granollers 7-5, 7-6(4).
Doubles Report: Nestor In Record Territory
In doubles, Czechs Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek rallied to defeat Frenchmen Fabrice Martin and Lucas Pouille 3-6, 6-0, 10-4.
The tandems of Daniel Nestor/Edouard Roger-Vasselin (d. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez/David Merrero 6-4, 6-2) and Aisam-Ul-Haq Quershi/Giles Simon (d. Bellucci/Viktor Troicki 7-5, 7-6(3) are also into the second round.
Nestor is closing in on a historic milestone. The 43-year-old Canadian is now within one win of becoming the first player in the Open Era to register 1,000 career doubles match wins. Since teaming up with Roger-Vasselin in Montreal for the first time, they have compiled an 18-5 record. Nestor is playing in Paris for the 21st consecutive year, and he has a 34-19 match record. He won the title in 2009 with Nenad Zimonjic, and reached the final in 2000 with Paul Haarhuis, 2005 with Mark Knowles and 2007 with Zimonjic.