We now know the eight remaining players left in the men’s singles draw of the 2020 Rolex Paris Masters. In what is the final ATP Masters 1000 Series event of the season, the event this week in Paris is also the only Masters 1000 Series event that is played exclusively indoors in 2020.
On Thursday, eight third-round matches were played with two interesting results. Even though there were no French fans in the crowd due to coronavirus, French tennis fans would have been ecstatic on Thursday to hear that Ugo Humbert, the 34th ranked player in the world, beat 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic of Croatia, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. Humbert will now face 2016 Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic of Canada in the quarterfinals. Raonic, the 10th seed in Paris, defeated Marcos Giron of the United States, 7-6, 6-2.
The other intriguing third round matchup on Thursday had Stanislas Wawrinka, the 12th seed from Switzerland, come back to beat Andrey Rublev of Russia, the fifth seed, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3. Even though Wawrinka has three career Grand Slam titles to his name, the win over Rublev would be considered a minor upset if you look at what the players have done lately. Rublev has won three ATP Tour 500 series events over the last two months, and his five ATP Tour tournament wins in 2020 are the most this year.
Wawrinka will now face Germany’s Alexander Zverev, the fourth seed on Friday. Zverev is currently having some issues off the court. According to the Associated Press on Thursday, Zverev denied a domestic abuse allegation made by his ex-girlfriend. Zverev defeated Adrian Mannarino of France 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 in his third round tilt.
Meanwhile, there will be an all-Spaniard matchup on Friday as number one seed Rafael Nadal faces ninth seed Pablo Carreno Busta. The other quarterfinal has the third seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia facing the sixth seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina.
For FREE!
