American Frances Tiafoe started his campaign in Paris on a winning note after defeating Nicolas Mahut in the first round in straight sets. Similarly, Karen Khachanov overcame Filip Krajinovic in the opener to reach the second round of the 2018 Paris Masters.
The first day of the Paris Masters 2018 was dominated by the youngsters. Tiafoe, who is currently ranked the World No. 44, sailed to a comfortable victory over Mahut with 7-6(1), 6-2, in a little over 80 minutes.
The reigning Delray Beach champion had 10 aces under his belt and did quite well to restrain his French adversary. He didn’t give Mahut many opportunities for the break while maintaining a fist service win rate of 85%. The first set proved to be quite tricky for the American but he managed to take the tiebreaker without any difficulty.
The second set started off on a rocky note with Mahut having to save four break points to take the first game. However, he was eventually broken twice over the course of the set by Tiafoe and as a result; he moved on to lose the set 6-2.
Khachanov too enjoyed a similar start against his Serbian adversary Krajinovic. He won the match 7-5, 6-2 in a little under 90 minutes.
The World No. 18, who recently won the ATP Kremlin Cup, has had a brilliant season so far. He has managed to carry that momentum to Paris, as evident in his opening game. His first service win rate was at 80% and he was the better player for most of the game.
He also converted four break points out of a possible eight to see himself through to the victory. The young Russian will now face Mathew Ebden of Australia in the second round.
On Tuesday, October 30, the fans will get to see Milos Raonic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga go against each other in the first round. The winner of this fixture will face Roger Federer in the second match.
There remain concerns, however, if Federer will continue to feature at the Paris Masters or if he would end up withdrawing from it after having had a tiring week at the Swiss Open last week, a tournament he went on to win for a record ninth time.
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