PARIS: Former world number one Daniil Med­vedev kickstarted his campaign at the Paris Masters on Tuesday with a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 win over Spaniard Jaume Munar.

The 2020 Paris Masters champion began briskly on the vast centre court of the event’s new La Defense Arena home, claiming the opening set in under half-an-hour.

Eleventh seed Medvedev then secured the crucial break in the sixth game of the second set and served out to set up a second-round meeting with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

Earlier, Canadian ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime kept alive his hopes of qualifying for the ATP Finals in Turin with a comeback 6-7(2/7), 6-3, 6-3 victory over Argentinian Francisco Comesana.

Auger-Aliassime is ninth in the race for the eight-place tournament and needs a deep run in the French capital to make his second career appearance at the season-ending tournament.

Shock Shanghai Masters winner Valentin Vacherot raised the roof on the 17,500-capacity centre court as he continued his remarkable form in the opening match of the day.

The Monegasque wildcard beat Czech 14th seed Jiri Lehecka 6-1, 6-3 in under an hour, and will next meet his cousin Arthur Rinderknech in a repeat of the Shanghai final earlier in October.

Canadian Gabriel Diallo beat Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4 and France’s Corentin Moutet fought past Amer­ican lucky loser Reilly Opelka in three sets.

On Monday, Dimitrov returned to action by beating Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 7-6(7/5), 6-1 in the first round.

It was the scene of a triumphant comeback for former world number three Dimitrov as he played his first match since having to retire injured from his fourth round match at Wimbledon in July when leading two sets to love against eventual champion Jannik Sinner.

“Winning or losing this match today would have been a win for me, I’m just so happy to be able to compete again,” 34-year-old Dimitrov said on-court.

“I had to be extremely patient with myself... clearly I’m playing against such an amazing player but I’m just grateful (to win).”

Dimitrov overcame fervent home support in the night session to grind out the first set on a tie-break against big-serving Fren­chman Mpetshi Perricard.

Bolstered by his lead, the Bulgarian swiftly secured the first break of the match in the opening game of the second set as he glided through to the round-of-32.

Meanwhile, the four-time Grand Slam champion Jannik Sinner said he was “not worried physically” ahead of his opening match in Paris on Wednesday against Belgium’s Zizou Bergs.

“The body feels good now. A bit tired, of course, playing five matches in a row and coming here is not much time to recover,” he said. “But I’m happy how I’m feeling. I recover every day better.”

He retired after suffering from cramps at the Shanghai Masters earlier in October and experienced problems with his thigh in the Austrian capital.

The Italian lost his number one spot to Carlos Alcaraz when he was fell to the Spaniard in the final of the US Open in September — after having held it for 65 weeks. And Sinner now said that he had come to terms with finishing the season second.

“It’s impossible [to finish the year at No. 1]. Honestly, I’m not thinking about this at the moment. It’s going to be a goal for next year,” Sinner said.

Trailing Alcaraz by less than 1,000 points, Sinner could theoretically overtake Alcaraz if he wins the Paris Masters and his rival fails to reach the last four.

But he will then have to defend 1,500 points at the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin — which he won in 2024 — whereas his rival was eliminated in the group stage and has few points to lose.

“This year it’s not in my hands,” Sinner simply added.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2025