The ATP Masters Paris Indoors 1000 event started on Monday from France, and already two of the top three players in the draw have been knocked out. On Tuesday, Roman Safiullin of Podolsk, Russia, knocked out the second seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, 6-3, 6-4. Then on Wednesday, Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, defeated the third seed, Daniil Medvedev of Russia, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6. Both upsets were in the second round.
It should be noted that even though, Safiullin and Dimitrov are unseeded, they are household names in the tennis world. Safiullin is currently the 45th ranked player in the world, and went to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon earlier this year. Dimitrov is 17th in the world, and is a three-time grand slam semifinalist, as he reached the final four of Wimbledon in 2014, the Australian Open in 2017, and the United States Open in 2019.
In Safiullin’s win over Alcaraz, the Russian did very well off of Alcaraz’s serve. He had eight break point opportunities, of which he broke the world number two on four occasions.
In Dimitrov’s win over Medvedev, it took two hours and 54 minutes to complete. In the second set tiebreak, Medvedev won 7-4, and in the third set tiebreak, Dimitrov won 7-2.
The serve played a significant factor in the Dimitrov win. Dimitrov had eight aces compared to two double faults, while Medvedev had six aces compared to eight double faults.
Dimitrov will next face Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, the winner in Halle earlier this year, in the third round on Thursday. Safiullin meanwhile will play fellow Russian Karen Khachanov, the 16th seed, and 2022 United States Open semifinalist, and 2023 Australian Open semifinalist.
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