Spain’s Fernando Verdasco rallied past Marin Cilic of Croatia 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the second round of the Paris Masters on Monday.
Julien Benneteau of France, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, Kevin Anderson of South Africa, and Philipp Kohlschreiber and Florian Mayer of Germany also advanced.
The tournament is the last chance for some players to gain one of the last three remaining spots for the ATP World Tour Finals in London on Nov. 20.
Photo: AFP
Cilic hit a forehand winner to take the first set, but Verdasco bounced back by jumping to 3-0 leads in the second and third sets.
“It’s slower than last year,” Verdasco said. “I prefer maybe a little bit more this court because it’s slower and I have more time to prepare my shots.”
Verdasco is hoping to be on the Spain team for the Davis Cup final next month.
“If I play Davis Cup, then I will try to prepare and get ready for that final the best as possible, and if I’m not, at least finish well here,” Verdasco said.
Verdasco is next scheduled to face fifth seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.
Benneteau defeated Milos Raonic of Canada, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, setting up a match with 13th seed Andy Roddick. The French wild card reached the final of the Winston-Salem Open in August and has improved his ranking to No. 54 after being No. 87 six months ago.
Kohlschreiber defeated Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-4, 6-2. The German qualifier broke to lead 4-3 in the opening set, before going 4-0 up in the second.
Garcia-Lopez edged Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 and he is next scheduled to play sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. Giraldo slammed his racket to the ground after netting a backhand to lose the match.
Anderson had 13 aces to outlast Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
French pair Nicolas Mahut and Adrian Mannarino, Andreas Seppi of Italy and Alex Bogomolov Jr of the US also won.
Mahut served three straight aces to close out a 6-2, 6-3 win over former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain and he is next scheduled to face fourth seed David Ferrer of Spain.
Mahut was playing for the first time since withdrawing from a second-round match at the Valencia Open following the death of his two-year-old nephew eight days ago.
Mannarino downed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-2, 6-2 and he is scheduled to meet Roger Federer, while Seppi stunned 2006 champion Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 7-6 (7/2), 7-5 and Bogomolov beat Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2.
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