Men's top seed Novak Djokovic triumphed on his return to the tennis circuit at the Paris Masters ©Getty Images

Top seed Novak Djokovic triumphed on his return to the tennis circuit as he won his opening match at the Association of Tennis Professionals Paris Masters in three sets.

The Serbian, playing for the first time since losing in the US Open final and missing the chance to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a calendar year, received a bye into round two and came up against Márton Fucsovics of Hungary in the first match of the evening session at the AccorHotels Arena.

Djokovic was taken to three sets, eventually battling past Fucsovics 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in a contest that lasted exactly two hours.

The day’s only other second round match saw sixth seed Casper Ruud of Norway secure an early hours triumph as he overcame Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik 6-4, 6-0 in a contest that finished at 1am local time.

Norway's Casper Ruud was the day's other second round winner in Paris, beating Alexander Bublik in a contest that ended at 1am local time ©Getty Images
Norway's Casper Ruud was the day's other second round winner in Paris, beating Alexander Bublik in a contest that ended at 1am local time ©Getty Images

The reason for the late finish was because all of the day’s five previous matches on Court Central had gone to three sets, with the first of these featuring ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada who came from a set down to beat Italian qualifier Gianluca Mager 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Elsewhere at the Masters 1000 tournament, 16th seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria beat home wildcard Richard Gasquet 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, but the home crowd had something to cheer in the next match as 15th seed Gael Monfils defeated Serbian qualifier Miomir Kecmanovic 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

In the day’s other matches involving seeded players 11th seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina beat Australia’s John Millman 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 while 14th seed Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain was beaten 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 by James Duckworth of Australia.