Paris Masters: The British men’s day of suffering at the Paris Masters came to an abrupt end as Cameron Norrie lost to French qualifier Corentin Moutet in the second round.
The 13th-ranked British player never seemed at ease against his 64th-ranked opponent in a match that didn’t start until after midnight. He lost 6-3 5-7 7-6 (3) in almost three hours on the court.
Norrie was his own greatest opponent, managing just 34 victories to Moutet’s 50 while committing 27 unforced errors and four double bogeys.
It happened after Norrie’s fellow countrymen Dan Evans and Jack Draper also lost in the second round.
Frances Tiafoe, the world number 21, defeated Draper 6-3, 7-5, despite several extremely close games in the second set, in an hour and 24 minutes.
In the second set, Tiafoe made a strong start, but Draper blasted two aces in the fourth game to even the score at 2-2.
Even though Tiafoe was on the verge of pulling away, Draper fought back in the eighth game, which lasted more than 10 minutes, until Tiafoe broke and won the first set.
45th in the world Draper had a strong start in the second set, serving four aces in the first three games, but Tiafoe stayed up with him.
The match appeared to be headed for a tie-break when the scores were tied at 5-5, but Tiafoe gained the upper hand against Draper to break in the 11th game and go on to win the second set 7-5.
Following Alex de Minaur’s 6-4 2-6 7-5 victory over Daniil Medvedev, Tiafoe will play the Australian in round three.
Evans was also eliminated from the competition after losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas, the fifth seed, 6-3, 6-4.
The third game saw three aces from the world’s number five player to put him up 3-0 before Evans fought back to make it 5-3.
But the Greek proved his mettle by winning the first set by taking advantage of the world number 27’s double fault in the ninth game.
Tsitsipas broke in the opening game of the second set, but he ran into trouble against Evans, who rallied to fall behind 5-4.
Tsitsipas, though, managed to hang on and win the match with an ace in the tenth game to advance to the third round, where he will face Moutet.
Rafael Nadal also lost in the second round. By a score of 3-6 7-6 (4) 6-1, Tommy Paul, the world’s number 31, defeated the second seed.
Andrey Rublev and Felix Auger-Aliassime finished off the singles competition for the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals, which will be played the following week.
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