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.

Dustin Brown has not competed in a Grand Slam main draw since the 2018 Australian Open, but the always-entertaining German made a good start towards changing that on Monday, upsetting second seed Denis Istomin 7-6(5), 6-1 to reach the second round of Roland Garros qualifying.

The 34-year-old, who has climbed as high as No. 64 in the ATP Rankings, has not played a tour-level match this year. But the eight-time ATP Challenger Tour titlist did well to win the Mouratoglou Open, a Challenger event held in April at Sophia Antipolis, France.

In the second round of qualifying. Brown will play Ecuador’s Emilio Gomez, who beat Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Taver 6-4, 6-1. Gomez claimed his first Challenger trophy in April, triumphing in Tallahassee, Florida, dropping just one set in six matches.

#NextGenATP German Rudolf Molleker ousted former World No. 5 Tommy Robredo 7-6(5), 6-3. The 18-year-old qualified for the Australian Open earlier this year, and he is trying to reach the main draw at Roland Garros in his first appearance.

Eight Frenchmen moved on during the first day of qualifying action on the Parisian terre battue. And one of those winners was Hugo Gaston, who defeated 25th seed Marco Trungelliti 6-4, 6-1. One year ago, Trungelliti gained notoriety after a 10-hour mad dash from Barcelona, where he resides, to take a lucky loser spot in the main draw in Paris.

#NextGenATP Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina continued his strong form with a 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-1 win against Brit Jay Clarke. Davidovich-Fokina qualified at the Millennium Estoril Open and advanced to the semi-finals, ultimately falling in three sets against Pablo Cuevas.

The most emphatic victory of the day went to American Marcos Giron, who blitzed countryman Donald Young 6-0, 6-1.

There’s nothing like playing at home, especially if you’re #NextGenATP Frenchman Ugo Humbert during your first full season on the ATP Tour.

The 20-year-old left-hander made his first tour-level semi-final at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille in February, and on Monday, during his debut in Lyon, the Metz native broke a four-match losing streak to make the second round at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon, an ATP 250 event.

The Next Gen ATP Finals hopeful hit eight aces and converted six of nine break points to beat Brit No. 2 Cameron Norrie 6-1, 6-3.

“I stayed in my playing identity, which means hitting hard. I strike fast and play fast, so during the first rallies of the game, I knew what to do, and I’m happy for having played a complete game,” he said.

Humbert is also pleased to have started a new winning streak after such a strong start to his 2019. The left-hander qualified and beat six-time ATP Tour titlist Pablo Cuevas to make the second round at the ASB Classic in Auckland in January.

One month later, in Marseille, Humbert beat Latvian veteran Ernests Gulbis, then-No. 13 Borna Coric of Croatia for his first Top 20 win, and Germany’s Matthias Bachinger to make his first ATP Tour semi-final.

Read Flashback: Humbert Upsets Coric In Marseille | View Lyon Draw

“I think that I worked hard. It’s a moment in which everything starts to come together. It’s tough to explain with words. But my progress is rather good. And there is still plenty of room for improvement, which is great,” Humbert said.

Humbert struggled from there, however, losing his openers at the ATP Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami, and in Marrakech and Munich. But he’s pleased to be back in France and to be playing well.

Humbert needed only 66 minutes to beat Norrie, who’s playing at a career-high No. 41 after qualifying and making the second round at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, a Masters 1000 event.

“I’m very happy as it’s been a while since I played this well on clay. I know I can do it,” said Humbert, who celebrated his first clay-court win at tour-level. “I trained well last week with a lot of serenity and confidence. I felt really good on the court.”

View The ATP Race To Milan Standings

Humbert can find serenity on the court – and away from the clay. The Frenchman relaxes after a day of training by playing the piano 30 to 45 minutes every day.

He started when he was about five years old at the urging of his parents. Now he always travels with his keyboard, and the French Tennis Federation has a piano at his training facility in Paris.

“I try to play as often as I can,” Humbert said. “I really enjoy playing, and it is very relaxing. During those moments, I don’t think about anything else.”

More On Humbert
Moving On Up: Challenger Stars Making Seamless Transition
Five Things To Know About Humbert

On the court, the left-hander has been working on playing more aggressively, the tactics that nearly carried him to the Next Gen ATP Finals last year.

“He is always positive. He knows what he wants, and he goes for it. He plays aggressively because he wants to win,” said Cedric Raynaud, who’s coached Humbert for the past five years. “He has improved because he has been working so hard. We have been working on keeping his positive mentality throughout training and matches.”

Humbert finished one spot away from making the second Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan last November. Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz won the ATP Challenger Tour event in Brest to surge into the final qualifying spot and book his spot in Milan, just edging Humbert in the final ATP Race To Milan standings.

But the 6’2” Humbert has one more year of eligibility, as he was born in 1998 and will turn 21 in June. This year, he’s determined to be one of the eight best 21-and-under players who compete in Milan from 5-9 November. Humbert is currently in eighth place in the Race. The top seven players on 28 October will qualify automatically, with the eighth place reserved for a wild card.

“It is one of my goals this year to participate and be one of the best young players,” Humbert said. “I will give everything in order to be there this year.”

Rafael Nadal might have taken longer to win his first title in 2019 than he did in any season since 2004, the year he earned his maiden tour-level crown. But after an impressive performance against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic on Sunday to lift his ninth Rome trophy, Nadal left the Italian capital with not just another victory to his name, but a record 34th ATP Masters 1000 title.

With his triumph, Nadal clawed closer to Djokovic and Roger Federer in the race for the most Big Titles — a combination of Grand Slam, Nitto ATP Finals and Masters 1000 crowns. The 32-year-old Spaniard now has 51 of them, trailing Djokovic by two and Roger Federer by three.

Watch Highlights Of The Rome Final:

Roland Garros, the year’s second Grand Slam, is less than a week away. So Nadal has put himself in a position to turn up the heat on Federer and Djokovic, potentially moving to just one back of Djokovic and two behind Federer in Paris. Five players (excluding Nadal) have won at least 10 Big Titles overall (since 1990), and Nadal has lifted just the Roland Garros trophy 11 times.

Nadal has now won at least one Big Title in 14 of the past 15 years. And with his five victories at the Foro Italico last week compared to Federer’s two, the Spaniard is on the verge of surpassing the Swiss’ record for most Masters 1000 wins. Federer leads Nadal 378-377 entering Roland Garros.

Nadal also moved closer to Djokovic for the rate of Big Titles won record. The rivals have both played a combined 178 Grand Slams, Nitto ATP Finals and Masters 1000 tournaments. Djokovic has triumphed once per 3.4 tournaments at those levels, while Nadal has been victorious once per 3.5 events. Both players are well ahead of Federer in that category, as the 37-year-old has won once per 4.2 tournaments.

“What means most to me is this trophy,” Nadal said. “Rome is one of the most important tournaments of the year. Part of the history of our sport. To be able to win here again is the main thing.”

Did You Know?
Nadal has also turned up the heat on Djokovic in the race for the year-end No. 1 ATP Ranking. 

Current and Former Champions’ Big Titles Won (Records Since 1990)

* Becker’s four other Grand Slam titles came before 1990.
** Edberg’s three other Grand Slam titles came before 1990.