Dominic Thiem advanced to the second round of the Paris Masters with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 win over local favorite Adrien Mannarino Monday. Opening play at the refurbished Bercy arena, the 22-year-old Thiem saved five of the six break points he faced to set up a second-round match with Kevin Anderson. The 19th-ranked Thiem has won his first three titles this season, all on clay, and is the youngest player in the Top 25. Thomaz Bellucci also made it to the second round, where he will be up against top-ranked Novak Djokovic. Bellucci defeated lucky loser Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 6-4. In other results: Andreas Seppi of Italy beat Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 7-5, 6-3; and Bernard Tomic of Australia downed Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-3, 6-2. The Paris Masters is the final regular-season tournament before the eight best players meet in London at the ATP World Tour Finals from Nov. 15-22. Djokovic carries a 10-match winning streak into the Masters, with the world No. 1 riding a wave of form which has lifted him to a record year. The Serb has not lost at the Bercy Arena since going down to American Sam Querrey in the second round three years ago when he was also dealing with a family health crisis. Since then, Djokovic has claimed the last two titles, beating Canadian Milos Raonic in the final a year ago and Spaniard David Ferrer in 2013. With another undefeated autumn run in China now in the record books, there seems to be no limits to the confidence of the top man in the sport this season. "I haven't lost a match, the last couple years during the indoor season," said Djokovic in the Paris run-up. "I've played only Paris and London (year-end finals) for the last couple years. But still the perfect record that I have in these two tournaments allows me to believe that I can do well. "I'm not thinking about being unbeaten till the rest of the year. But, yes, that's an option. It's a possibility. But I'll still try to keep the kind of a philosophy and approach where the next match matters." All 16 seeds in the field receive first-round byes, with No. 2 Scot Andy Murray playing for the first time since losing badly in the Shanghai semifinals last month against Djokovic. — Agencies
