Paris Masters 1000: Royer Wins All-French Duel, Blanchet Eliminated by Quinn in Qualifying

The qualifying rounds for the Paris Masters 1000 began this Saturday morning, and the first two results concerning French players are in.

A match-up between Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Valentin Royer was on the schedule. Ranked 69th in the world and on a steady rise in recent months, the latter was the favorite against Herbert, ranked 142nd in the ATP, on Court 1.

Incidentally, it was P2H who won their only previous encounter in the second round of the Roanne Challenger last year. The 34-year-old player started better and broke serve early, but he couldn't maintain his lead on the scoreboard.

While serving for the set at 5-4, Herbert saw Royer break back and then take the lead for good with a final break at 6-5. Royer, now in good form, then broke his opponent's serve midway through the set, which was enough to secure the win.

Despite only hitting 4 winners in the match (compared to 19 for Herbert), Royer wins in two sets (7-5, 6-3 in 1h20) and advances to the final round of qualifying where he will face Sebastian Korda or Vit Kopriva.

On his side, Ugo Blanchet failed to clear the first-round hurdle. On Court 3, the player who had received a wild card from the organizers to participate in the qualifying rounds was stopped by Ethan Quinn.

Ranked 146th in the world, Blanchet faced the number 12 seed in the qualifying draw, but he wasn't clinical enough on his break points to hope for a better outcome. Opposite him, the world number 71 was opportunistic, converting four out of five break points he earned, and wrapped up the match in two sets (6-2, 6-3 in 1h09). Quinn will face Jenson Brooksby or Botic van de Zandschulp for a spot in the main draw.