Third seed Roger Federer arrived in the capital fresh from his 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Rafael Nadal at the Swiss Indoors to claim a sixth trophy this season behind the nine of Djokovic.
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Defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia starts his bid for an unprecedented third title in a row with a second-round match against Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil later on Tuesday.
Nadal admits he has found it tough at times this year although having recently qualified for next week’s ATP World Tour Finals, the 29-year-old says he has rediscovered a few of his passion for the game.
“I always believed that I was going to be in the top eight at the end of the season, but always with the respect (for other players)”, Nadal told a news conference ahead of this week’s Paris Masters.
“The confidence is good, no doubt about it”, said Federer.
I stick by my assessment from Shanghai that if anybody is going to halt Djokovic over three sets then, if at his very best, Federer can.
“I played against a player who was in form and who is playing well and gave me a hard time.it’s always good to have a test like this”. So I do the best I can.
“The body has gotten used to match play again after all these weeks when I didn’t have enough matches”. Now I feel like Paris is not a problem anymore.
Young guns Dominic Thiem and Bernard Tomic also advanced to the second round.
Wawrinka, who is bidding to become the first player to win Roland Garros and the Paris Masters the same year since Andre Agassi did it in 1999, saved all five break points and hit 13 aces to progress with a 6-3, 7-6 (6) win.
Mannarino complained of problems from a previous hip sprain, saying he started to feel pain early in the third set.
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Australian Tomic needed just 56 minutes to beat Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-2, with six double-faults from the often casual Italian contributing to the loss.
