Frances Tiafoe will not go any further. Particularly imprecise on his first balls (53%), the American, 14th in the world, was sharply eliminated this Monday by the Kazakh Alexander Bublik (6-3, 6-4, in 1h08), 33rd in the world, in the first round of the Rolex Paris Masters.
Overwhelmed, Tiafoe was quickly broken (0-2) and never really posed any problems to his opponent, leaving Bublik to pocket the first round without trembling. In the second, the American was a little more incisive, without managing to get the slightest break point. The Kazakh capitalized on his clumsiness to punch his ticket for the second round, where he will face the Chilean Nicolás Jarry, who defeated the Australian Alexei Popyrin (7-5, 7-6). [6]).
Same story with Ben Shelton. The 21-year-old American, winner of the Tokyo tournament, struggled for a long time, in vain, against the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (7-6 [4], 5-7, 6-3, in 2h30). However, Shelton could count, as usual, on his devastating serve (15 aces) to undermine the morale of his opponent.
However, the Spaniard held on despite losing the second set, and finally managed to make the difference, stealing the American’s serve (4-2). From then on, Shelton gave everything to erase his delay, but that was not enough to prevent Davidovich Fokina from reaching the second round, where he will challenge the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, victorious over another American, Christopher Eubanks (6-7 [2]6-3, 6-4).
