PARIS: Alexander Zverev made a losing start to his reign as world number one on Wednesday as the two-time Grand Slam champion went down 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 to an inspired Lorenzo Musetti at the Paris Masters.
Playing his opening match in the round of 32 in the French capital, the German accumulated errors to tamely exit the tournament against the 24-year-old Italian.
Former world number five Musetti became the fifth man to defeat a player in his opening match as the world number one.
But Zverev insisted that the pressure of being the top-ranked player was not the cause of his poor performance.
