Home favourites Fils/Mpetshi Perricard clinch opening win in Paris

Arthur Fils and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard transferred some of their recent singles form to the doubles court on Wednesday at the Rolex Paris Masters.

The wild card duo downed Jamie Murray and John Peers 7-5, 7-6(6) in a tight first-round clash at the indoor ATP Masters 1000 event. Fils, who has won 10 of his past 12 singles matches, and last week’s Basel champion Mpetshi Perricard hit 11 aces, according to Infosys ATP Stats, en route to victory in their ATP Tour team debut.

The 79-minute win was Fils’ second victory of the day in Paris, where he earlier claimed a singles triumph against Jan-Lennard Struff. Mpetshi Perricard fell in the singles to Karen Khachanov, but picked himself up to claim just the second tour-level doubles match win of his career. Awaiting Fils and Mpetshi Perricard in the second round will be sixth seeds Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic.

Also on Wednesday, Neal Skupski and Michael Venus bounced back from the disappointment of Vienna championship-match defeat with a 6-1, 6-0 victory against Jean-Julien Rojer and Joe Salisbury. Their next assignment in Paris is an encounter with the second-placed pair in the PIF ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos.

Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin were also first-round winners in the French capital. The Mexican-French duo overcame Argentines Francisco Cerundolo and Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-2, 5-7, 10-5. Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin now lead the two teams' Lexus ATP Head2Head series 2-0.

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