Medvedev’s winless run at Paris Masters extends with loss to Popyrin in spicy battle

Australian Alexei Popyrin edged out Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No 4 seed, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (4) to advance to the last 16 of the 2024 Paris Masters at the Accor Arena on Wednesday.

Apart from the first few games of the match, Medvedev remained behind Popyrin, who clinched the win in two hours, 33 minutes.

The Russian fared better than the Aussie on the aces tally, hitting 11 to Popyrin’s five, however, he sprayed a staggering 14 double faults and landed only 57 percent of his first serve.

This was Medvedev’s third straight loss in his Paris Masters openers, having lost to Australian Alex de Minaur (6-4, 2-6, 7-5) in 2022 and to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2)) last year.

Things turned spicy in the deciding set after Medvedev recovered from a break down as Popyrin, facing a break point, lost his cool over an umpiring error in the ninth game.

The eventual winner abused the lines official in rage after the latter wrongly called one out, forcing the point to be replayed after Popyrin looked in dominating position to save the break point.

I don’t want to play.”

Alexei Popyrin told chair umpire

The play, however, continued and the 25-year-old went on to hold and later win the match in the tiebreak.

Popyrin, ranked No 24, will play the winner of the match between French wildcard Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and Russian Karen Khachanov next.

Ahead of his victory, the Australian won against Italian Matteo Berrettini (7-5, 7-6 (2)).

Paris Masters 1000, other second-round results (Accor Arena, hard, EUR 5.950.575, most recent results first):

• Arthur Cazaux vs. Ben Shelton
• Alexander Zverev vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Jack Draper vs. Taylor Fritz
• Alex De Minaur vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
• Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs. Karen Khachanov
• Alexander Bublik vs. Holger Rune
• Ugo Humbert vs. Marcos Giron
• Arthur Fils vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
• Zizou Bergs vs. Adrian Mannarino: wednesday
• Arthur Rinderknech (WC) beat Alex Michelsen: 7-6 (6), 7-6 (7)
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Tomas Martin Etcheverry: wednesday
• Jordan Thompson beat Casper Ruud (7): 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (10) beat Alejandro Tabilo: 6-3, 6-4
• Carlos Alcaraz (2) beat Nicolas Jarry: 7-5, 6-1
• Francisco Cerundolo beat Andrey Rublev (6): 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5)

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