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.

–ChannelAfrica–