Paris Masters Qualifying Opens as Bellucci and Tirante Reach Final Round

The final Masters 1000 tournament of the season got underway on Saturday, with the first round of qualifying at the Rolex Paris Masters in Nanterre. Twenty-eight players are contesting two rounds of qualifying for just seven places in the 56-player main draw, which begins on Monday. Among Saturday's winners were Italy's Mattia Bellucci, who beat Spain's Pablo Carreño Busta, and Argentina's Thiago Agustín Tirante, who came through against American Zachary Svajda, with the pair now set to meet each other on Sunday for a main-draw place. Australia's Rinky Hijikata also advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Jaime Faria, while Czech Tomáš Machac beat Spain's Martín Landaluce 6-4, 6-3. French wild card Hugo Gaston opened proceedings on Court Central against Vit Kopriva, and Sebastián Báez, Miomir Kecmanovic and Lorenzo Sonego were also among those in action on the opening day. The main draw, headed by top seed Alexander Zverev, will see Novak Djokovic open against Valentin Vacherot, while defending champion Jannik Sinner is absent after ending his season with a knee problem.