Beijing time last night, the first round of the Paris Masters began one after another. In the first round, there was a focus showdown between American Star II Koda and Russia's secret weapon Karatsev.
Last week, after beating Cilic in the Kremlin Cup to win the title, Karatsev still had a glimmer of hope of qualifying for this year's year-end finals, but only if he won the Paris Masters.

Judging from the champions of the Paris Masters in recent years, the probability of the Russian winning the championship is still relatively high. In the distance, Safine has won the cup many times, and in recent years, Khachanov and Medvedev have won the championship.
However, Karatsev did not feel good at the beginning, and he quickly lost the first set 2-6 after being broken.
After fighting again, Karatsev regained some of his touch, while Koda remained unsupportive. In the end, the two fought to grab seven, and the Russians seized the opportunity better to equalize on aggregate.
In the decider, the two sides are still inseparable. Especially in the seventh set, the two sides played for fourteen minutes before they could tell the winner. Karatsev managed to save his serve after dodging multiple match points.
This game is reminiscent of this year's Wimbledon tiebreaker between Koda and Khachanov. At that time, the two sides "completed" each other's breaks, which eventually led to fans leaving messages online - hurry up and end this embarrassing game!
It's in the big game again! Against the Russians! This time, Koda seized the opportunity. After re-entering the tie-7, Koda took the lead and kept the lead all the way to win the game 7-5.
After the victory, Koda was very excited, which showed how hard the victory of this game was.
Since Wimbledon, his performance has also been difficult to say, as a dark horse player who is quite optimistic about the US Open, he retired due to injury in the first round.
At the Masters, he was hit hard by his compatriot Tiaphre who had recently felt hot, and he was already at a disadvantage compared to Therna and Alcaraz of the same age. Fortunately, through this game, he still gave people some hope.
The Russians, on the other hand, have completely lost hope of reaching the finals. Looking back at the first half of the season, his ranking is still in the top eight of the finals, and the follow-up has fallen all the way out.
The last straw was also missed, leaving the quarter-final lieutenant generals with only two Russian players, as they did last year.
And Nori, who competed for the seat with him, effortlessly repelled Argentine star Del Bonis last night.
This time, karaoke is no longer OK, and if you want to appear in the finals, you can only save for the next year! (Source: Tennis House Author: Luo ChengQiye)
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