Aleksandar Vukic was rewarded for his fight in Paris Masters qualifying with a place in the second round after beating French wildcard Terence Atmane 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
But there was disappointment for Alexei Popyrin who followed his compatriot from Sydney onto Court 1 at La Defense Arena but lost to 13th seed Alexander Bublik 6-4, 6-3.
The match had a strange ending when Popyrin hit the final backhand out of bounds and Bublik celebrated at the net, before walking away and shaking the chair umpire’s hand without acknowledging the Australian.
Some of the crowd booed the lack of a handshake, as Bublik then returned to the field and raised his arms in the air in celebration.
The Kazakh, who served 13 aces to Popyrin’s three, broke crucially at 5-4 in the first set. Popyrin responded to an early break in the second stanza, but couldn’t respond again when Bublik broke for 4-2.
This ended the prospect of the two Australians meeting in the third round. However, the odds were already long as Vukic, ranked 103rd in the world, now meets fourth seed Taylor Fritz.
The American, who received a first-round bye, is fourth in the world and won all three matches with Vukic.
Nonetheless, Vukic has reason to be confident after brushing aside locally-backed Atmane, who is 69th in the world, having climbed more than 100 places in the past six months, and beating Fritz in Cincinnati in August.
Both players managed three breaks but, while Vukic broke once in each set, Atmane was only able to break in the second.
Whoever wins between Vukic and Fritz, if he also advances to the third round, will then be lined up to meet the other Australian in Paris, Alex de Minaur, in the quarter-finals.
The national number one is seeded sixth and, after a first-round bye, will face 25th-seeded Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor or Canadian Gabriel Diallo.
He should then face Karen Khachanov, 10th seed, the wily Canadian Denis Shapovalov, or even the rising star Joao Fonseca, the 19-year-old player with the pulverizing forehand who won the ATP 500 in Basel on Sunday.
The only player Minaur will be relieved to know he cannot face before the final is Jannik Sinner, who extended his dominance over Demon to 12 wins from 12 in the Vienna Open semi-final on Saturday.
However, he will likely have to beat world number one Carlos Alcaraz, who is in MInaur’s half of the draw, to reach the Paris final.
The Spaniard will face Cameron Norrie in the second round after the Briton beat Sebastian Baez 6-3, 6-4.
Among other matches, Andrey Rublev beat Jacob Fearnley 6-1, 6-4, Flavio Cobolli beat Tomas Machac 6-1, 6-4 and wildcard Arthur Rinderknech beat Fabian Marozsan 7-5 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4).
PAA/ABC
