Australian No.1 Alex de Minaur continued his fine run at the Paris Masters as he upset ninth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut to progress to the third round on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old Sydneysider, who lost the Swiss Indoors final to Roger Federer on Sunday, beat his Spanish opponent 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-1) and now faces seventh-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas.
De Minaur is currently placed a career-high No. 18 in the ATP Rankings and has now won 11 of his past 14 matches.
But he faces a tough task against Greek world No.7 Tsitsipas, who earlier produced a confident display to dispatch American Taylor Fritz 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 in 73 minutes, serving 13 aces and facing no break points.
Two-time French Open runner-up Dominic Thiem, meanwhile, had a much tougher time on court against Canada’s Milos Raonic before triumphing in a 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 6-4 victory to extend his winning streak to six matches.
Canada’s Denis Shapovalov also progressed with a 3-6 6-3 6-3 result against Italy’s Fabio Fognini to play Alexander Zverev on Thursday.
Zverev is aiming to secure his place at the ATP Finals in London from November 10, where he is the defending champion. Tsitsipas and Thiem have already qualified.
The 26-year-old Thiem, who won the Erste Bank Open in Vienna last week, recovered from a 3-1 deficit in the first set tie-break by winning six consecutive points to take the lead.
Raonic broke serve late in the second to level but a series of forehand errors cost him a match-ending break in the third set, allowing Thiem to claim the win after 2 hours 38 minutes.
The battle for world No.1 status continues later Wednesday as Novak Djokovic takes on France’s Corentin Moutet, while No.2 Rafael Nadal starts against Adrian Mannarino.