Sports
BRITISH number one Jack Draper cruised through to the second round of the Paris Masters with a straight-set win over the Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka.
Draper, who won the biggest title of his career in Vienna on Sunday, won 7-5 6-2 in one hour eight minutes.
A tight first set went to serve before Draper made the crucial break in the 11th game.
The Briton dominated the second set, reeling off five games in a row to seal victory.
He will now face American fifth seed Taylor Fritz in the second round on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old left-hander, who reached his maiden Grand Slam semi-final at the US Open last month, rose to a career-high ranking of 15th in the world on Monday.
Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz is through to the third round after a 7-5 6-1 win over Chilean Nicolas Jarry.
The second seed, who was given a bye in the first round, will face France’s Ugo Humbert or American Marcos Giron in the last 16.
Australia’s Alex de Minaur boosted his chances of qualifying for the season-ending ATP Finals with a 7-5 6-1 first-round win over Mariano Navone of Argentina.
De Minaur will replace Andrey Rublev in the final qualification position with a run to the quarter-finals in Paris and plays Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic next.
Russian sixth seed Rublev, who was also given a first-round bye, is out after a 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5) defeat by Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo.
Earlier on Tuesday, world number one Jannik Sinner withdrew from the Masters 1,000 event with illness.
Italy’s Sinner said he had picked up a virus after arriving early in the city to practise for the event.
“Today I feel better already a little bit, but the body is not ready to compete and I still feel very, very weak,” the 23-year-old said.
“It doesn’t make sense to go on court and try to compete.”
Sinner will be hopeful of recovering before the ATP Finals, which take place in Turin from 13-20 November.
– BBCSport
A.I
Oct. 30, 2024
Tags: Jack Drape Jiri Lehecka.
