Muller and Mpetshi Perricard Advance, Tsitsipas Eliminated Early in Winston-Salem

During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, several matches took place at the ATP 250 tournament in Winston-Salem. Two French players made their debut in North Carolina. Eighth seed Alexandre Muller had to work hard to secure a win against Darwin Blanch (6-7, 6-3, 7-5 in 2 hours and 13 minutes of play).

Despite having a break advantage in the first set, the Frenchman, who reached a career-high ranking of 38th this week, saw his opponent come back and take the lead, but he found the resources to prevail.

In the next round, Muller will face his compatriot Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. The latter was also pushed to his limits by Pedro Martinez. But the 39th-ranked ATP player ultimately had the final say, dominating the Spaniard in a suspenseful match (2-6, 6-3, 7-6 in 1 hour and 51 minutes).

Greatly aided by his 11 aces, Mpetshi Perricard converted his third match point to advance to the round of 16. He will face Muller for the first time in his career this Wednesday.

On the other hand, the top two seeds have already been eliminated in Winston-Salem. Stefanos Tsitsipas, seeking confidence, fell in his first match against Bu Yunchaokete (6-3, 6-2).

Ranked 28th in the world, the Greek player is not finding reassurance ahead of the US Open, the Grand Slam tournament that has been the least successful for him in his career, as he has never advanced past the third round in New York.

Meanwhile, Tallon Griekspoor also lost in his opening match. The second seed was defeated by Marton Fucsovics (6-3, 4-6, 6-3). Ranked 31st in the world, the Dutchman has now lost his last four matches on the ATP tour and has only won one match since Wimbledon.

That win was a month ago in the second round in Bastad against Pellegrino, where he saved six match points before turning the situation around. Since then, Griekspoor has been struggling with a lack of confidence.