Australia's top-ranked tennis player Alex de Minaur showed off his renowned fighting spirit to win a three-set thriller, as Jannik Sinner's bid to reclaim the world No.1 ranking got off to a sizzling start at the Paris Masters.
De Minaur, ranked No.7 in the world and the sixth seed in Paris, has been one of the form players of the season, but was made to earn victory in his round-of-32 clash against Canada's Gabriel Diallo on Wednesday (local time).
The Australian clinched a tense 18-point first-set tiebreak, then lost the second, before rebounding in the third for a gritty 7-6 (10-8) 4-6 6-3 victory.
Not a lot separated the players, with de Minaur's consistency proving one of his major weapons.
Diallo basted 32 winners to the Australian's 14, but also gave up a similar amount of points by making 33 unforced errors to just 13 from de Minaur.
De Minaur's victory set up a clash against Russia's Karen Khachanov, the 10th seed who was also pushed to three sets before beating Brazil's Joao Fonseca 6-1 3-6 6-3.
Meanwhile, Sinner's bid to reclaim the world No.1 ranking got off to a bright start, the Italian breezing to a 6-4 6-2 second-round victory over Zizou Bergs.
Sinner needs to win the tournament to knock Carlos Alcaraz off the top spot after the Spaniard was beaten by Briton Cameron Norrie in the second round.
The Italian's 65-week reign as top dog had ended in September when Alcaraz beat him in the US Open final for his sixth major title.
But Alcaraz's early exit in Paris has now opened the door for the Australian Open and Wimbledon champion, fresh from his win in Vienna at the weekend, to grab back the No.1 spot.
Sinner had Bergs under constant pressure, forging 11 break-point chances and converting three, while not conceding a break point of his own in Wednesday's clash as he recorded his 22nd straight win on hard courts.
The 24-year-old Sinner clinched victory on his first match point and plays unseeded Francisco Cerundolo in the third round.
Defending champion Alexander Zverev joined Sinner in round three, rallying from 3-1 down in the final set to beat Camilo Ugo Carabelli 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 7-5.
The third-seeded German next plays 15th-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
No.9 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada rallied from a break down in the second set and 3-0 down in the third-set tiebreaker in a 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4) win over Frenchman Alexandre Muller.
Auger-Aliassime next faces unseeded Daniel Altmaier, who beat eighth-seeded Casper Ruud 6-3 7-5 to end the Norwegian's Turin chances.
No.11 Daniil Medvedev advanced with a walkover after Grigor Dimitrov pulled out of their match with a shoulder injury.
Following his career-best win over Alcaraz, Norrie will next face surprise Shanghai Masters champion Valentin Vacherot in the last 16.
Having produced one of the stories of the season by coming through qualifying and eventually defeating his cousin Arthur Rinderknech in the final in China earlier this month, Monaco's Vacherot engineered a repeat in Paris.
After the draw once again threw them together, Vacherot came out on top for the second time, winning 6-7 (9-11) 6-3 6-4.
