Edmund hits back to beat Donskoy in Paris opener

Kyle Edmund saved a match point in a fine comeback win over Evgeny Donskoy in the first round of the Paris Masters.

The British No 3 arrived in France having reached his third ATP Tour semifinal in Vienna last weekend and defeat by Russian Donskoy would have been a disappointing way to end the season.

But he battled to a 5-7, 7-6 (9/7), 6-3 victory and will face 16th seed Jack Sock in the second round.

Edmund recovered from 0-3 only to lose the first set on a cruel net cord and then found himself in big trouble after losing the opening three games of the second set to a player ranked 26 places lower.

But history repeated itself as world No 50 Edmund hit back for 3-3 and then produced a fine serve to save a Donskoy match point at 6-7 in the tie-break.

He eventually took it 9-7 and carried his momentum into the decider, turning the tables by winning the first three games and clinching victory on his third match point.

In China, second seed Coco Vandeweghe also had to come from behind to open her Hengqin Life WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai campaign with a hardfought victory over wild card entry Peng Shuai.

The American dropped serve twice to lose the opening set 6-3 in Zhuhai, but rallied to win the next two 6-3, 6-2, losing only five points on serve in the third.

Vandeweghe, who had won just one match in her previous four tournaments in China, told www. wtatennis.com: “Today was a survive-and-conquer kind of day. I really was playing not so well, very below average for the standard that I’m used to playing and competing at.”

Russian fourth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also needed three sets to see off former world No 1 Angelique Kerber.

Having lost the first 6-3, the German bounced back to win the second by the same score and broke at the start of the third, only to see Pavlyuchenkova reel off four successive games on her way to a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory.