Jannik Sinner extended his winning run on indoor hard courts to 22 matches in the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters, as in-form Valentin Vacherot booked a last-16 tie on Thursday against Carlos Alcaraz’s conqueror Cameron Norrie.
Three days after beating Alexander Zverev in the Vienna Open final for his fourth ATP Tour title of the year, Sinner dispatched Belgium’s Zizou Bergs 6-4, 6-2 in 88 minutes to set up a last-16 tie against Argentina’s world No 21 Francisco Cerundolo.
World No 2 Sinner, who can reclaim the No 1 position from Alcaraz if he wins the title in Paris for the first time, broke Bergs in the first game of each set and never lost his own serve on the way to a routine victory.
Sinner had only previously won one match at the Paris Masters, which has moved this year to La Defense Arena from its previous home at Bercy.
“It’s a very unique court here,” said Sinner.
“Usually I always struggled a bit so I’m very happy to come through the first match. I’m very happy with how I served today, I was very precise and I started off with a break, which gives you a bit more confidence straight away.”
Vacherot beats cousin Rinderknech again in marathon match to book Norrie tie
After claiming what he described as the “biggest win of my career” against Alcaraz on Tuesday, Norrie learned on Wednesday that he will meet Monaco’s Vacherot in the last 16.
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Vacherot won out 6-7(9), 6-3, 6-4 against his cousin Arthur Rinderknech in a rematch of their fairy-tale final appearance against each other at the Shanghai Masters earlier this month, which Vacherot also won in three sets after losing the first.
At 204th in the world at the start of that Shanghai tournament, the 26-year-old became the lowest-ranked Masters 1000 champion in history. Vacherot is now 40th in the world.
Defending champion Zverev, meanwhile, had to dig deep to avoid a shock early exit, fighting back from 3-1 down in the third set to see off Argentina’s Camilo Ugo Carabelli 6-7 (5) 6-1 7-5.
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Ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime just about kept alive his hopes of making the end-of-year ATP Finals with a 5-7 7-6 (5) 7-6 (4) win over Alexandre Muller.
But Casper Ruud‘s chances of making Turin are over after he lost 6-3, 7-5 to the unseeded Daniel Altmaier.
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Daniil Medvedev advanced with a walkover after Grigor Dimitrov pulled out of their match with a shoulder injury.
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