Great Britain's Jack Draper and Dan Evans have joined Cameron Norrie in the second round of the Paris Masters after beating Arthur Rinderknech and Brandon Nakashima respectively.
Evans took two hours and nine minutes to get the better of the American Nakashima 6-3 3-6 6-4, having recovered from a second-set blip to turn the tide in his favour.
The 32-year-old broke in the third game of the first set before holding to love for a 3-1 lead, and despite performing well on serve, Nakashima could not earn the vital break back.
Evans broke for a second time in the ninth game to take the first set, but in the second, it was Nakashima's turn to break in the third game for an early advantage.
Evans miraculously managed to beat away three break points for the aggressive Nakashima in the seventh game, but in identical fashion to the first set, he was broken again in the ninth as Nakashima forced a decider.
After finding himself 30-0 down in the fifth game of the third set, Evans rallied to break for a 3-2 lead, and despite squandering two match points, he made no mistake with the third to seal victory.
Having managed to save six of the eight break points he faced on the day, Evans has set up a second-round tie with number five seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and could meet Norrie in round three if both men make it through.
© Reuters
Meanwhile, 20-year-old sensation Draper's win over home favourite Rinderknech was much more straightforward, as he took just an hour and a half to see off the Frenchman in straight sets 6-3 6-4 to make the perfect start to his Paris Masters debut.
Draper brought up three break points in the sixth game of the match, and while Rinderknech managed to save two of them to reduce the deficit to 30-40, the Brit made it third time lucky to move 4-2 up.
Draper won a staggering 94% of points on his first serve in the opening set, but he missed an early chance to gain the upper hand in the second, letting a 40-0 lead slip in the third game as Rinderknech stormed back to hold.
The vital break would nevertheless arrive for Draper in the seventh game to hand him a 4-3 lead, and he held to love to move one game away from a place in the second round.
Rinderknech would force the youngster to serve it out with a love hold of his own, and the Frenchman was agonizingly close to keeping the tie alive after going 40-15 up on Draper's serve.
However, Draper saved both break points before sealing the victory on his second match point, and he will now meet US Open semi-finalist Frances Tiafoe in the second round.
Ben Knapton
