Pablo Carreno Busta's ATP Finals hopes in the balance after slumping against home wildcard Nicolas Mahut
Tuesday 31 October 2017 23:40, UK
Kyle Edmund saved match point against Evgeny Donskoy to progress at the Paris Masters on Tuesday.
The British No 3 won 5-7 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 in the first round after surviving rocky moments in each of the first two sets.
Edmund fell 0-3 behind before losing the first set after a net chord went Donskoy's way. The Brit then lost the first three games of the next set, but was able to recover and win a tie-break, during which he saved Donskoy's match point.
That moment broke the resistance of his 76th ranked opponent, and Edmund cruised through the deciding set to set up a second-round tie against Jack Sock.
US Open semi-finalist Pablo Carreno Busta opened the door for the chasing pack as his hopes of qualifying for the season-ending ATP Finals in London were left in the balance.
The Spaniard, who currently occupies the final spot for the tournament in November, lost to Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-4 6-1 to give added hope to the likes of Anderson and Juan Martin del Potro, among others.
Del Potro takes on Joao Sousa in his opening second-round clash on Wednesday, with the former US Open champion needing to reach his fifth successive semi-final to overhaul Carreno Busta.
South African Anderson, who was beaten in the final by Rafael Nadal at Flushing Meadows, needs a run to at least the quarter-finals to keep his hopes alive.
Sam Querrey's hopes of qualifying for London were ended after the big-serving American suffered a 6-4 6-4 defeat to Serbian qualifier Filip Krajinovic.
Querrey will end a successful season in which he reached the Wimbledon semi-finals just outside the world's top 10.
Austrian fifth seed Dominic Thiem battled hard to come through against German lucky loser Peter Gojowczyk, 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-4.
Fernando Verdasco beat Andrey Rublev 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (8-6), while fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez came through against Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 and Adrian Mannarino continued his good form against David Ferrer 6-2 6-4.
Diego Schwartzman, Pablo Cuevas and Joao Sousa also recorded first-round wins in the French capital.
Sky Sports will have the action from the final Masters 1000 tournament of the year in Paris all this week.
The Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan and season-ending extravaganza ATP Finals at London's O2 in November end another memorable year which will be covered via our website www.skysports.com/tennis with live blogs and updates as the season reaches its climax.
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