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Australia's Alexei Popyrin has recovered after a foul-mouthed outburst to score a victory over Daniil Medvedev, while compatriot Alex de Minaur also advanced at the Paris Masters.
De Minaur's 6-4, 7-6(7/5) win over lucky loser Miomir Kecmanović puts him into the round of 16 and one win away from making it into the qualifying spots for the eight-man ATP Finals at season's end.
The Australian ninth seed was made to work for his win as per usual, bouncing back from a break of serve and fighting off two set points at 3-5 in the second set to force the tiebreak, which he won on his second match point.
De Minaur was cheered on by and later reunited with young superfan Paul, who was a regular fixture on court during the 25-year-old's run to the quarterfinals at the French Open earlier this year.
Young de Minaur superfan Paul was a constant presence during the Aussie's French Open run in May. (Instagram: paul_plln)
After Russian Andrey Rublev melted down in the second round, de Minaur only needs to reach the quarterfinals in Paris to leapfrog him into eighth spot in the race for the season-ending showpiece event for the first time.
To do so he will next have to beat Briton Jack Draper, who ended the Aussie's run in the quarters at the US Open. De Minaur and Rublev are then scheduled to play smaller tournaments in Serbia and France respectively that could affect qualification if the gap between them is small enough.
Popyrin, meanwhile, will face another Russian in his bid for a quarterfinal place in Paris, taking on Karen Khachanov after a tense 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(7/4) second-round victory over 2021 US Open winner Medvedev.
World number 24 Popyrin went ballistic after a poor call from a line judge initially handed fifth-ranked Medvedev a break and a chance to serve for the match at 5-4.
Alexei Popyrin shouted at the umpire, but his beef was with the line judge late in his match. (AP: Michel Euler)
Popyrin had his opponent on the run and lobbed a ball toward the right tramline where it was called out by the line judge before Medvedev bunted it back and Popyrin volleyed into the open court.
The call was overturned on Popyrin's challenge as the ball-tracking showed a decent chunk of the ball on the line, but the point had to be replayed.
"What the f***? So slow and he calls it out," Popyrin complained to the umpire, who admitted: "That's a terrible call".
"How can you call that ball out? This is f***ed, I don't want to play. This is f***ed. This is ridiculous."
But he regained his composure, held his serve and then proved stronger in the tiebreak to take his third career win over a top-five ranked opponent.
"The animation from me came out after that call," Popyrin said.
"That was tough call to take, but stuff like that, I try and let it fire me, rather than put me down and demotivate me. It definitely fired me up, probably woke me up a little bit, and made me play a little bit more free."
He had lost his three previous matches against the former US Open champ but, aided by out-of-sorts Medvedev's serving woes in delivering 14 double faults, he prevailed after two-and-a-half hours.
In a tight final breaker, the key moment came when Medvedev double-faulted one last time to give Popyrin a match point, which the Aussie then converted with a fine volley at the net, his 31st winner of the match.
"To get the job done here, at the last Masters of the year where I really wanted to go deep, this is a great step," said Popyrin.
Popyrin in August became the first Aussie to win a Masters 1000 in more than two decades when he beat Rublev at the Canadian Open.
He and de Minaur are joined in the round of 16 by countryman Jordan Thompson, who face Italy's Adrian Mannarino.
ABC/AAP