Lorenzo Sonego rallied past fellow Italian and No. 7 seed Lorenzo Musetti 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, and Germany’s Daniel Altmaier upset No. 8 seed Casper Ruud of Norway 6-3, 7-5 in the Round of 32 of the Rolex Paris Masters on Wednesday.
Sonego made his mark by converting 4 of 5 break-point opportunities and saving 3 of 4 break points he faced against his countryman. Altmaier sent 10 aces past Ruud while saving 4 of 5 break points.
Musetti and Ruud joined No. 1 seed Carlos Alcaraz on the sidelines after the Spaniard was upset by Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie on Tuesday.
That upset opened a path for Italian No. 2 Jannik Sinner to wrest the No. 1 world ranking back from Alcaraz. Sinner would return to No. 1 in the world if he wins the title at this week’s ATP Masters 1000 tournament.
After a first-round bye, Sinner got off to a fine start Wednesday by beating Zizou Bergs of Belgium 6-4, 6-2. Sinner won 24 of 31 first-service points (77.4%) despite not recording an ace.
“It’s a very unique court here. Usually I always struggled a bit, so I’m very happy to come through the first match,” said Sinner, who won the Erste Bank Open in Vienna over the weekend. “I’m very happy how I served today. I was very precise, and I also started off with a break straight away, which gives you a bit more confidence. I’m very happy about today’s performance.”
No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany — who lost to Sinner in that Vienna final Sunday — survived a narrow first-set loss and beat Argentina’s Camilo Ugo Carabelli 6-7 (5), 6-1, 7-5. The third set was knotted 5-5 before Zverev rallied from a 40-15 deficit to break Carabelli’s serve and gain the edge.
Carabelli won a whopping 46 of 57 first-service points (80.7%), but Zverev finished with twice as many winners as his foe (36 to 18).
“It’s something I have to learn from. I played (Carabelli) in Rome, and he was nowhere near that level,” Zverev said. “That’s a mistake from me. I have to prepare better for my opponents, but he was fantastic today.”
No. 6 seed Alex de Minaur of Australia also went the distance to eliminate Canadian Gabriel Diallo 7-6 (8), 4-6, 6-3. No. 9 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime needed three hours and four minutes to get past France’s Alexandre Muller 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4).
Other winners included No. 10 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia, No. 13 seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, No. 15 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain, Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina and Valentin Vacherot of Monaco.
No. 11 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia advanced via walkover after Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov withdrew with a shoulder injury. Dimitrov was making his first competitive start since a pectoral injury knocked him out of Wimbledon.
–Field Level Media
