{"id":244175,"date":"2025-10-27T20:36:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/244175\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T20:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:36:14","slug":"tennis-atp-paris-masters-2025-dimitrov-upends-mpetshi-perricard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/244175\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis, ATP \u2013 Paris Masters 2025: Dimitrov upends Mpetshi Perricard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov<\/a> was back on the pro Tour four months after his retirement at Wimbledon<\/a> against Jannik Sinner<\/a> and was happy to win against Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 7-6 (5), 6-1<\/a> in the opening match of the night session, to move into the second round of the Paris Masters<\/a> at the Paris La D\u00e9fense Arena on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to come out and test myself, give myself a chance\u201d Dimitrov said at the post-match interview. \u201cI think winning or losing tonight. I\u2019ve given all I I had, of course, it\u2019s very difficult to to adjust, especially playing against a player like him. You have to be aware throughout the whole time and stay focused. It doesn\u2019t matter how much experience you have. There\u2019s always that added stress, especially after so many months away. But listen, it\u2019s it\u2019s a good night. I\u2019m taking it in and just going one day at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always that added stress, especially after so many months away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to expect if I have to be completely honest\u201d, Dimitrov added. \u201cI had to look on my side of the net and really control what I could, and that was my serve. The way I was reading the game and playing my shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dimitrov : \u201cNot much expectations\u201d<\/p>\n

Dimitrov\u2019s victory was built in the first set, which he won 7-5 in the tie-break after one hour and nine minutes of play. Although relatively comfortable on their service games, both men nonetheless had to save two break points each early in the set.<\/p>\n

Dimitrov took the tie-break 7-5, proving to be the more solid player in key moments, despite two unforced errors that allowed Mpetshi Perricard to come back from 5-2 to 5-4. The Frenchman, too timid at the net\u2014a backhand volley into the net after having done the hard part, followed by a soft forehand volley late in the tie-break\u2014let slip a set that the Parisian crowd was eager to see him win, hoping to ignite the arena.<\/p>\n


\n \"\"
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, in the tiebreak, anything could have happened. I missed those two fairly easy forehands. I knew I\u2019m going to get another chance. So all that again comes from the experience. But I really had not much of an expectations for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mpetshi Perricard\u2019s Collapse in the Second Set<\/p>\n

Under these circumstances, the second set was merely a formality. Double-broken immediately (4-0 then 5-1), Mpetshi Perricard displayed astonishing service stats for a player whose game relies on this master stroke: zero aces to two double faults, 45% first serve percentage, only 8 points won on his own serve, and zero break points saved out of three.<\/p>\n

The Bulgarian, a finalist at the Rolex Paris Masters in 2023 and a semi-finalist in 2019, thus won his 25th career match at the tournament. This record makes him the fourth most effective player in the tournament\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Dimitrov, world No. 38 on the ATP tour, will face the winner of the match between Spain\u2019s Jaume Munar and Russia\u2019s Daniil Medvedev, the No. 11 seed, in the second round of the Parisian tournament.<\/p>\n

Paris Masters 1000, other first-round results (La D\u00e9fense Arena, hard, EUR 6.128.940, most recent results first):<\/p>\n

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Valentin Royer<\/p>\n

Jaume Munar vs. Daniil Medvedev<\/p>\n

Denis Shapovalov vs. Joao Fonseca<\/p>\n

Corentin Moutet vs. Reilly Opelka<\/p>\n

Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Camilo Ugo Carabelli<\/p>\n

Tallon Griekspoor vs. Gabriel Diallo<\/p>\n

Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Francisco Comesana<\/p>\n

Valentin Vacherot vs. Jiri Lehecka<\/p>\n

Karen Khachanov vs. Ethan Quinn<\/p>\n

Alexandre Muller beat Brandon Nakashima: 6-2, 7-5<\/p>\n

Lorenzo Sonego beat Sebastian Korda (Q): 6-2, 6-3<\/p>\n

Zizou Bergs beat Alex Michelsen: 6-3, 2-6, 6-2<\/p>\n

Alexander Bublik (13) beat Alexei Popyrin: 6-4, 6-3<\/p>\n

Andrey Rublev (12) beat Jacob Fearnley (Q): 6-1, 6-4<\/p>\n

Francisco Cerundolo beat Damir Dzumhur (Q): 6-3, 6-3<\/p>\n

Miomir Kecmanovic beat Aleksandar Kovacevic (LL): 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (2)<\/p>\n

Aleksandar Vukic (Q) beat Terence Atmane (WC): 6-4, 2-6, 6-4<\/p>\n

Arthur Rinderknech (WC) beat Fabian Marozsan: 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4)<\/p>\n

Learner Tien beat Nuno Borges: 6-2, 7-6 (7)<\/p>\n

Cameron Norrie beat Sebastian Baez: 6-3, 6-4<\/p>\n

Flavio Cobolli beat Tomas Machac: 6-1, 6-4<\/p>\n

Arthur Cazaux (WC) beat Luciano Darderi: 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4)<\/p>\n

Daniel Altmaier beat Marcos Giron: 6-2, 7-6 (5)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov was back on the pro Tour four months after his retirement at Wimbledon against Jannik…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-244175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}