The China Mail - Dimitrov wins on comeback as Paris Masters enters new era

After being held for nearly 40 years at Paris' Bercy Arena, the tournament has moved across the city to set up shop in the cavernous multi-purpose arena.

Opened in 2017, the venue is best known as the home ground of French Top 14 rugby club Racing 92 and for having played host to the swimming events at the Olympics last year. It also welcomes concerts and political rallies.

Now in its current guise as a tennis venue, La Defense Arena boasts the second largest showpiece court on the current global tennis circuit -- second only in size terms to the US Open's Arthur Ashe Stadium.

It was the scene of a triumphant comeback for former world number three Dimitrov as he played his first match since having to retire injured from his fourth round match at Wimbledon when leading two sets to love against eventual champion Jannik Sinner.

"Winning or losing this match today would have been a win for me, I'm just so happy to be able to compete again," 34-year-old Dimitrov said on-court.

"I had to be extremely patient with myself... clearly I'm playing against such an amazing player but I'm just grateful (to win)."

Dimitrov overcame fervent home support in the night session to grind out the first set on a tie-break against the big-serving Frenchman Mpetshi Perricard.

Bolstered by his lead, the Bulgarian swiftly secured the first break of the match in the opening game of the second set and never looked back as he glided through to the round of 32.

There he will meet either former Russian world number one Daniil Medvedev or Spain's Jaume Munar, who play on Tuesday.

Russian 12th seed Andrey Rublev earlier raced to a 6-1, 6-4 win over Britain's Jacob Fearnley.

Rublev cruised through the opening set before pouncing on Fearnley's serve at 4-5 to book his spot in the second round.

"Jacob didn't feel the serve in the first set, which helped me a bit," Rublev said. "He played well in the second and I'm happy to have won."

Earlier, the event opened with a pair of hardfought wins for French wildcards.

Arthur Cazaux christened the new 17,500-capacity centre court with a 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) triumph over Italy's Luciano Darderi.

Shanghai Masters runner-up Arthur Rinderknech then further delighted the local fans with a win by the exact same score against Hungary's Fabian Marozsan.

Rising Italian hope Flavio Cobolli kickstarted play on court one with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Czech Tomas Machac and Kazakh 13th seed Alexander Bublik defeated Australia's Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 6-3.

Tenth seed Karen Khachanov will complete the day's play against American qualifier Ethan Quinn.

S.Davis--ThChM