The French Ugo Humbert and Arthur Fils qualified for the 3rd round of the Masters 1000 in Shanghai on Sunday, beating the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp and the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich respectively.
Humbert, 34th in the ATP rankings, who needed three sets, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, to dismiss the 62nd in the world, will face the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the next round.
The Mosellan, 25 years old, will not be favored by the predictions against the number 4 seed. But he will be able to rely on his recent run in Beijing, an ATP 500 during which he dismissed a member of the Top 10, the Russian Andrey Rublev (6th), before losing in three sets in the quarter-finals against the number 3 in the world Daniil Medvevev, another Russian.
Arthur Fils has already had a good performance in Shanghai since he easily defeated the number 24 seed, Davidovich, in two sets 6-2, 7-5 on Sunday.
The French hope, who had never before defeated this opponent (two defeats), barely had a setback in the second set: he was broken while serving for the match at 5-3. But he immediately pulled himself together and finished 7-5 on his first match point on an opponent’s serve.
While he will face the American Tommy Paul, seeded N.12, in the next round, Arthur Fils, 19, is already assured of continuing his progression in the ATP rankings since he will reach at least 38th place in the world next Monday.
Two other French people are in the running this Sunday in Shanghai: the French number one Adrian Mannarino (23rd), who has just won the Astana tournament, faces a qualifier, the Taiwanese Chun-Hsin Tseng (380th). Quentin Halys (76th in the ATP), for his part, lost to the Russian Rublev, seeded N.5, in two sets (66-4, 7-5).