Robin Haase has made a flying start to the Rolex Paris Masters. After dismissing Steve Johnson for the loss of just three games in the first round in the French capital, the Dutchman ousted fourth seed Alexander Zverev 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday to reach the third round.

The 30-year-old Haase, who reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final in the summer in Montreal (l. to Federer), overcame the 20-year-old Zverev in one hour and 33 minutes. The right-hander won 77 per cent of his service points and broke Zverev four times as he set up a clash with either Joao Sousa or Nitto ATP Finals contender Juan Martin del Potro.

Zverev will look to cap his standout season in style when he makes his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals in London, beginning 12 November. The German has won two Masters 1000 crowns this season, in Rome and Montreal, and also lifted trophies in Montpellier, Munich and Washington.

In action later on, Rafael Nadal will clinch the year-end No. 1 spot in the Emirates ATP Rankings with victory over Hyeon Chung, while London contenders Tsonga, Goffin, Anderson and del Potro are all in the hunt for crucial points.

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Rafael Nadal can clinch the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fourth time by defeating #NextGenATP player Hyeon Chung at the Rolex Paris Masters on Wednesday. Nadal, 31, bids to become the oldest year-end No. 1 and first year-end No. 1 over the age of 30 since the Emirates ATP Rankings were established in 1973. He also finished 2008, 2010 and 2013 atop the rankings. If Chung upsets Nadal, the Spaniard will get a second chance to clinch at the Nitto ATP Finals November 12-19.

Opportunity awaits Kevin Anderson, Juan Martin del Potro and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga after Nicolas Mahut beat Pablo Carreno Busta on Tuesday. If he reaches the quarter-finals this week, Anderson will pass Carreno Busta and assume the last spot for Nitto ATP Finals qualification. Not far behind in the Emirates ATP Race to London are Del Potro and Tsonga, who would pass Carreno Busta by reaching the semi-finals. In second-round matches on Wednesday, Anderson faces Fernando Verdasco, Del Potro meets Joao Sousa and Tsonga takes on Julien Benneteau.

View FedEx ATP Head2Head matchups for Day 3 and vote for who you think will win!
Nadal vs. Chung | Cilic vs. Coric | Dimitrov vs. Gasquet

Tsonga and Benneteau were among the tournament-record five Frenchmen who reached the third round in 2009. As many as six can make it that far this year, including Lucas Pouille and Adrian Mannarino. Pouille won the biggest championship of his career in Vienna on Sunday and became the only player in 2017 with titles on three surfaces. He faces Feliciano Lopez on Court Central, while Mannarino meets No. 1 Belgian David Goffin in a possible preview of the Davis Cup final.

Pablo Carreno Busta will have a tense wait to see if he is going to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals after falling to Nicolas Mahut in his opener at the Rolex Paris Masters on Tuesday evening.

The Spaniard currently occupies the final qualifying spot in the Emirates ATP Race To London, as he looks to make his debut at the year-end championships, but now must wait and see how Kevin Anderson, Juan Martin del Potro, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Lucas Pouille perform at the final ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of the season.

Home favourite Mahut, who battled past Vasek Pospisil in the first round, defeated the eighth-seeded Carreno Busta 6-4, 6-1 in just 86 minutes. The 35-year-old Mahut, a wild card entrant, saved eight of the nine break points he faced as he avenged his US Open loss to Carreno Busta.

Serbian qualifier Filip Krajinovic recorded just his second tour-level match win of 2017 — and his first victory at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in two-and-a-half years — to end American Sam Querrey’s quest for a place at next month’s Nitto ATP Finals. Krajinovic will now face Mahut for a spot in the quarter-finals.

Krajinovic, whose sole victory at Masters 1000-level had come against compatriot Dusan Lajovic at Miami in March 2015, knocked out No. 10 seed Querrey 6-4, 6-4 in 79 minutes. Querrey, who had led 2-0 in the second set and struck 11 aces, ends his 2017 campaign with a 36-21 match record, including two ATP World Tour titles.

Querrey started the week in the French capital at No. 11 in the Emirates ATP Race To London on 2,525 points – only 80 points behind Carreno Busta (2,605).

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Diego Schwartzman has had the best year of his career in 2017. Pick and choose your milestones to celebrate: career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 25; his first Grand Slam quarter-final, at the US Open; and his third ATP World Tour final (Antwerp, l. to Tsonga).

In the midst of another possible run, this week at the Rolex Paris Masters, the 5’7” Argentine took time to talk with ATPWorldTour.com about what he bought to celebrate a big win at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the time he asked his good friend Rafael Nadal literally for the shirt off his back.

First pinch-me moment on the ATP World Tour
I think when I won my first [ATP] Challenger. It was in Buenos Aires. That moment was amazing for me, with my family. I didn’t expect that moment at that time. I was playing the Challengers but I had never made it past the quarter-finals. In Buenos Aires, it was my first Challenger final, and I won the Challenger. It was amazing for me. That moment I started to think, ‘OK, I am doing well and I can do it better’.

First time I was recognised
The first time was in Buenos Aires… But then I think the past two years around the world, I have improved my tennis a lot, I have improved my ranking and I think people know more about me… This year people recognise me a little bit more… Maybe one year and a half ago or two years ago now, I’d go to the tournament entrances and there would be one more person there. Now it’s a little bit different… I like, I like. I think it’s good it’s because you are doing well.

First thing I bought with prize money
I don’t remember what was the first thing, but I remember in 2015 Indian Wells, after I beat Jerzy Janowicz, 7-6 in the third set (in the first round). Before the match I said to my coach, ‘If I win this match I am going to buy a computer and headphones’. And I won 7-6 in the third and the next day I went to the store and bought the computer and headphones… Beats headphones, black, the big ones and a Macbook Air.

Read More: Schwartzman Wins ATP Challenger Tour Finals

First autograph/photo I got
Football players, always. Ha, ha. I ask football players to take a picture with me. I love football. I watch football every day… Here in tennis, I am a little bit scared to ask for a photo… If I have confidence, I ask Sock, Ferrer, Nadal, Federer. I am always trying to take a picture with them but it’s not easy to ask… Ferrer I took photos with this year and I put on my Instagram. Rafa after Monte-Carlo in the quarter-finals this year I asked for the shirt he wore during the match and for him to sign the shirt, and I have it in my room, his shirt on the wall… He was playing with a pink shirt and I asked after our match, I have confidence with him… We have a good relationship, same language, friends in common… [I asked] in the locker rooms.

First pet
Lole, she was black and white, a Cocker Spaniel. That was a few years ago. Now we have one from the street. We were in the street with Lole, and this new one, a small one, came to us and we took it and it’s in our home now… The new one is Peque. It’s like me. My nickname, it’s Peque. In Argentina, everyone calls me Peque. It’s like little or small one, and I named the dog Peque.

When I am at home, Peque comes to me at night in the bed, sleeps with me. We are always joking at home with the dog. My parents had a dog at home and I also like to have that company. It’s nice.

Diminutive Argentine Diego Schwartzman recorded his 39th match win of a career-best season with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Viktor Troicki of Serbia on Tuesday to book his place in the Rolex Paris Masters second round. Currently No. 26 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, Schwartzman has a mathematical chance of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November, but his participation would also depend on other results. He will next face ninth-seeded American John Isner.

France’s Adrian Mannarino knocked out 2012 champion David Ferrer of Spain 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 32 minutes. Mannarino will next look to avenge his loss to David Goffin in the recent Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017 final. Goffin is next in line to qualify for the season finale, at No. 8 in the Emirates ATP Race To London.

Spain’s Feliciano Lopez saved three of four break points to earn a gritty 7-6(4), 6-3 win over wild card Pierre-Hugues Herbert for a second-round encounter against another Frenchman, No. 17 seed Lucas Pouille, who won his fourth ATP World Tour title on Sunday at the Erste Bank Open 500 (d. Tsonga).

There were mixed results in the French capital for three players — Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov and Borna Coric — who will compete at next month’s inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, from 7-11 November.

Spain’s Fernando Verdasco came through a hard-court 7-6(1), 7-6(6) victory over Rublev in one hour and 50 minutes. Verdasco saved one set point at 4-5, 30/40 in the first set and converted his fifth match point in the second set. Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas got the better of Khachanov 6-4, 6-2, but Coric hit 10 aces to defeat fellow qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 6-3, 6-4.

London Doubles Contenders Win Openers
Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, who need to win the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 doubles title in Paris in order to stand a chance of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals, got off to a winning start with a 6-2, 7-6(7) victory over Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas in 77 minutes. They will next face French fourth seeds and last year’s finalists Herbert and Nicolas Mahut in the second round.

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