Pablo Carreno Busta, who is knocking on the door of the Top 30 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Fabio Fognini on Monday at the BNP Paribas Masters. Carreno Busta, a winner of two ATP World Tour titles this year at the Winston-Salem Open (d. Bautista Agut) and VTB Kremlin Cup (d. Fognini), won 84 per cent of his first serve points, while Fognini committed 33 unforced errors in the 52-minute encounter. The Spaniard will next meet fourth seed Milos Raonic, who reached the 2014 final (l. to Djokovic).
Joao Sousa will play seventh seed and 2005 titlist Tomas Berdych after he saved all six break points he faced for his 27th match win of the year over qualifier Andreas Seppi, 6-4, 6-4 in 81 minutes. Steve Johnson made a winning start on his Paris debut by beating Guido Pella 6-4, 7-5 to set up a meeting against No. 12 seed Richard Gasquet.
Fernando Verdasco was leading 6-2, 3-2 when qualifier Robin Haase retired due to a hip injury after 62 minutes of play. The Spaniard will now challenge second seed Andy Murray, who is just 415 points from World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the Emirates ATP Race To London.
Marcos Baghdatis set a second-round contest with 14th seed Grigor Dimitrov after saving two of three break points to dismiss Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 6-4. Frenchman Gilles Simon outlasted countryman Julien Benneteau 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and 16 minutes. Simon will face 10th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round.
