Grigor Dimitrov, who has been out of action since taking a two-sets-to-love lead against Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon before withdrawing injured, faced a huge test in big-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard as the pair faced off for the first time at the Rolex Paris Masters.
In a long and tiring first set lasting over an hour, both players carved out two breakpoints on each other’s serve but were unable to convert. The players inevitably headed for a tie-break where the Bulgarian took a healthy 5-2 lead thanks to some nimble play at the net. Although he dropped his advantage, he held on to take the opener when Perricard dumped a return in the net on setpoint. The Frenchman had served seven aces and won 78% of points behind first serve and yet lost the first set.
Former world number three Dimitrov, who in a strange quirk of fate was scheduled to practice before the match with Sinner, wasted no time in the second set as broke serve three times before reaching round two and a potential match against Daniil Medvedev. Afterwards, he thanked the crowd for their support in his first competitive match for 14 weeks and explained how he had to be patient in his extended time off court.
“Thank you so much for your support,” said Dimitrov. “The number one thing I had to do was to be extremely patient with myself and give myself a little bit of a break. Today I was getting wrong-footed for a few shots and you have to take the funny side of it, the positive side as well. It’s never easy against Giovanni. The biggest challenge right now is dealing with my nerves and my own self. I’m not really worried about my game but when you back come to a competitive level, there’s always more to it.”
Dimitrov is also teaming up with Frenchman Nicolas Mahut – who plays in his final tournament of his long career – in the doubles as he looks to get as much court time before a starting fresh for next season.
Earlier on in the day, Cameron Norrie improved his head-to-head record against Sebastian Baez to 3-0 with a 6-3, 6-4 victory in the first round to set up a tasty meeting with World Number One Carlos Alcaraz tomorrow evening. The Brit hit three aces along with a healthy 70% first serve percentage, and although he dropped serve twice, he converted four of his six breakpoints to seal the win.
Meanwhile countryman Jacob Fearnley came through qualifying but was unable to extend his stay in the capital city going down to 12th seed Andrey Rublev 6-1, 6-4. Fearnley was comfortably outplayed in the opening exchanges but briefly threatened to level things up in the second set when he broke back for two games all, but could not sustain his improved level and succumbed when serving at breakpoint down at 4-5.
“I had a very good [opponent] today” said Rublev afterwards. “He can play very well; he’s won good matches this year. I was able to step up and play solid tennis. I’ve been struggling for a while with the wins. To win such a match like this on centre court, it’s a good feeling.”
In selected other results:
Alexandre Muller beat Brandon Nakashima 6-2, 7-5
Learner Tien beat Nuno Borges 6-2, 7-6 (7)
Alexander Bublik beat Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 6-3
Arthur Rinderknech beat Fabian Marozsan 7-6 (5), 7-4 (4)
Arthur Cazaux beat Luciano Darderi 7-6 (5), 7-4 (4)
Daniel Altmaier beat Marcos Giron 6-2, 7-6 (5)
Zizou Bergs beat Alex Michelsen 6-3, 2-6, 6-2
Fransisco Cerundolo beat Tomas Machac 6-1, 6-4
Lorenzo Sonego beat Sebastian Korda 6-2, 6-3
