Paris Masters: Rune keeps Turin hopes alive with comeback-win over Cazaux

Holger Rune, the No 13 seed, edged out French lucky loser Arthur Cazaux 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals of Paris Masters at the Accor Arena on Thursday evening.

The victory means that Rune is still an outside chance of qualifying for the ATP Finals in Turin, with the Dane rising to 2,825 points in the Race to Turin, 920 points behind Alex de Minaur, his quarter-final opponent.

Rune had to work hard for his spot in the last eight, with Cazaux serving well and pressuring the 21-year-old on serve as he won the first set 6-3.

The world No 13, who improves his record at the Paris Masters to 11-1, fought back well over the next two sets, improving his first serve percentage, tightening up his unforced error count, and hitting 11 aces to dispatch the lucky loser in two hours and five minutes.

Rune has now made three consecutive quarter-finals at the Paris event, and books his fourth Masters 1000 quarter-final of 2024.

Earlier in the tournament, the 21-year-old Dane beat Italian Matteo Arnaldi (6-4, 6-4) and Kazakh Alexander Bublik (6-4, 6-2).

Cazaux, ranked No 85, won against American Ben Shelton (6-3, 7-6 (4)) in the previous round of the Paris-Bercy tournament.

Paris Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Accor Arena, hard, EUR 5.950.575, most recent results first):

• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Arthur Rinderknech
• Ugo Humbert (15) beat Carlos Alcaraz (2): 6-1, 3-6, 7-5
• Alex De Minaur beat Jack Draper: 5-7, 6-2, 6-3
• Alexander Zverev (3) beat Arthur Fils: 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
• Karen Khachanov beat Alexei Popyrin: 7-6 (5), 6-4
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (10) beat Francisco Cerundolo: 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-2
• Jordan Thompson beat Adrian Mannarino (WC): 7-5, 7-6 (5)