(Reuters) – Greek second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was knocked out of the Paris Masters in the second round when he was beaten 7-6(4) 6-7(6) 7-6(3) by Frenchman Ugo Humbert on Tuesday.
Tsitsipas saved three match points in the second set’s tiebreak and another one in the last set before bowing out at an empty Bercy arena despite serving 19 aces.
Tsitsipas was trailing 6-3 in the second tiebreak but raised his game and benefited from his opponent’s nerves to bag five points in a row and force a decider. But the 22-year-old Umbert kept his composure in the third set’s tiebreak to set up a meeting with Marin Cilic.
The Croatian advanced without playing after his opponent, France’s Corentin Moutet, was withdrawn from the tournament after testing positive for coronavirus, the ATP said.
Earlier, Swiss Stan Wawrinka beat Briton Daniel Evans 6-3 7-6(3) in the first round, while Belgian eighth seed David Goffin slumped to a 6-4 7-6(6) second-round defeat against Slovak Norbert Gombos.
Top seed Rafa Nadal starts his campaign on Wednesday with a second-round encounter with fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
