Nadal withdraws from Paris

Organisers of the Rolex Paris Masters must be increasingly exasperated.   First they had to deal with the late withdrawal of twelfth seed Kyle Edmund, then there was the mass exodus of French players in front of a home crowd.

Now, top seed, and huge crowd favourite Rafa Nadal has pulled the pin, citing an abdominal injury.  Why he left it this late to withdraw is beyond me.  That type of complaint surely would count a player out days before the eventual announcement, which necessitated a lucky loser (Malek Jaziri) replacing Nadal at the top of the draw.  

On top of Nadal’s departure, Milos Raonic gave Roger Federer (3) a walkover, angering fans of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who had been defeated by the Canadian in a close first round match. Now it is the Swiss third seed riding the luck.

Another into the round of sixteen without lifting a racquet is Fabio Fognini (13), who received a walkover from Marton Fucsovics.

Second round matches actually played:

• Lucky loser Malek Jaziri defeated Fernando Verdasco 7-6(5) 1-6 6-3
• Jack Sock (16) defeated Richard Gasquet 6-3 6-3
• Dominic Thiem (6) defeated Gilles Simon 6-4 6-2
• Sascha Zverev (4) defeated Frances Tiafoe 6-4 6-4
• Diego Schwartzman (15) defeated qualifier Feliciano López 6-4 3-6 7-5
• John Isner (8) defeated Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3 6-7(2) 7-6(1)
• Kevin Anderson (7) defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-3 6-7(3) 7-6(3)
• Kei Nishikori (10) defeated Adrian Mannarino 7-5 6-4
• Grigor Dimitrov (9) defeated Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6(10) 6-4
• Borna Coric (11) defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-4 6-4