Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev suffered a shock defeat by home favourite Jeremy Chardy on a bad day for Russians at the Paris Masters on Tuesday but Alexander Zverev boosted his chances of qualifying for the ATP Finals. Meanwhile, Ashleigh Barty surrendered a one-set lead to crash to a 3-6 6-3 6-4 loss at the hands of late replacement Kiki Bertens at the WTA Finals on Tuesday as the world number one’s prospects of advancing to the semi-finals suffered a blow, Reuters reports.
Medvedev, who will make his debut at the ATP Finals in London next month after a barnstorming season, lost for the first time since the U.S. Open final, going down 4-6 6-2 6-4. Medvedev was on a nine-match winning run taking in St Petersburg and Shanghai where he took his tally of titles this season to four, but he came up against an inspired Chardy.
The Russian, who had reached six successive finals, looked in control when he took the first set but he ultimately paid for failing to convert 14 of the 15 break points he carved out.
Chardy even saved one as he served for the match in the decider, going on to reach the third round at the Paris event for the first time at the 10th attempt.
Chardy will face Chile’s Cristian Garin or 2016 finalist John Isner of the U.S. in the next round.
Top seed Novak Djokovic begins with a second-round clash against French lucky loser Corentin Moutet.
Second seed Rafa Nadal, playing his first tournament since getting married this month, also begins against a Frenchman in wildcard Adrian Mannarino.
Barty was facing the Dutchwoman after she took Naomi Osaka’s place in the draw following the Australian Open champion’s withdrawal with a shoulder injury and Bertens made the most of the opportunity. After feeling her way through the first set, the world number 10 - who reached the semi-finals of last year’s tournament - raised her game to hand Barty her first loss of the competition.
Barty’s status as world number one in the year-end rankings was confirmed following her win over Belinda Bencic on Sunday and the Australian looked impressive in the opening set, even as both players had trouble holding their serve.
Bertens, though, turned the tables in the second set, breaking the 23-year-old in the penultimate game to level the scores and take the match into a decider.
She carried that form into the final set and, as Barty struggled on her own serve, Bertens closed out the match to record her first-ever win over the French Open champion in five attempts.
Barty and Bertens were joined on one win apiece at the end of the second round of matches in the Red Group by Bencic after the Swiss beat Petra Kvitova 6-3 1-6 6-4, which leaves the Czech winless in her opening two matches.
