Paris Masters: Impressive Rune knocks out Thiem to reach the last 16

Defending champion Holger Rune continued his resurgence as he advanced to the last 16 of the Paris Masters by beating Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-2 at the Accor Arena.

The Dane was good value for his win, negating much of Thiem’s aggression by taking the ball early and not allowing the Austrian’s famously potent one-handed backhand much room to get going.

Thiem can take encouragement from the fact that he has come through two qualifying wins (one against a difficult opponent in Lorenzo Sonego), and also notched an excellent win against Stan Wawrinka in the first round.

He will rise back into the top 100 as he surges to No 92 in the world when the rankings are published on Monday.

After a difficult few months in which he struggled for form and match wins, Rune has put together a promising set of results across Basel last week and now here in Bercy, where he is the defending champion.

The Dane will face German Daniel Altmaier next, with a rematch against last year’s runner-up Novak Djokovic a possibility in the quarter-finals.

In the previous round of the Paris-Bercy tournament, Thiem, ranked No 108, edged out Swiss Stan Wawrinka (3-6, 6-3, 7-5).

Paris Masters, other second-round results (Accor Arena, EUR 5.779.335, most recent results first):

• Jannik Sinner vs. Mackenzie McDonald
• Alexander Zverev (10) beat Ugo Humbert: 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5)
• Francisco Cerundolo beat Casper Ruud (8): 7-5, 6-4
• Novak Djokovic (1) beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry: 6-3, 6-2
• Alex De Minaur (13) beat Dusan Lajovic (LL): 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (7) beat Felix Auger-Aliassime: 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Hubert Hurkacz (11) beat Roberto Bautista Agut: 6-3, 6-2
• Grigor Dimitrov beat Daniil Medvedev (3): 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2)
• Botic van de Zandschulp (Q) beat Tommy Paul (12): 6-4, 2-6, 6-3
• Taylor Fritz vs. Daniel Altmaier
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Yoshihito Nishioka (Q): 6-4, 6-3
• Alexander Bublik beat Nicolas Jarry: 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3)
• Roman Safiullin (Q) beat Carlos Alcaraz (2): 6-3, 6-4
• Karen Khachanov (16) beat Laslo Djere: 6-4, 7-5
• Tallon Griekspoor beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina: 6-2, 6-2