Richard Gasquet, Adrian Mannarino, Quentin Halys and Grégoire Barrère, four of the five French people in the running, reached the second round of the Miami Masters 1000 on Thursday, with the exception of Benoit Paire.
Gasquet, 40th in the world, beat 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 Australian Christopher O’Connell (86th), winning his first victory in seven years in the Florida event, of which he was also a semi-finalist in 2013.
Despite losing the second set, he was the most consistent, committing only 8 unforced errors against 26. Winner in Auckland at the very start of the year, he was also the most realistic, converting three of the five break points that he got hold of.
The Biterrois will then challenge Stefanos Tsitsipas, 3rd in the world, not in his best shape, because suffering from an arm. But the 36-year-old Frenchman didn’t seem to want to count on it.
“Yeah, injured guys… I played (Jannik) Sinner at Indian Wells who wasn’t very good in the knee against me and behind him he made a semi (final). We’ll see. Those are the best players in the world. Against Sinner I had a great match and if I reproduce the same level of play, the other will have to be good. We will see what Tsitsipas offers, but I think it will be fine for him when even, otherwise he wouldn’t play,” he told L’Equipe.
Adrian Mannarino (62nd) put in a set, before taking the measure 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 from Juncheng Shang (181st).
– Firsts for Halys and Barrère –
Passed by the first, by accumulating unforced errors, the 34-year-old Frenchman managed to settle his game in the second, also taking advantage of a foot injury from the great hope of Chinese tennis, 16 years his junior. But he still needed nine break points to finally break away and equalize. The third set was easier, since he took the serve of his rival twice, each time on his first opportunity.
Mannarino, who has never passed the 1/8th finals in Florida, will then face the American Ben Shelton (39th), quarter-finalist at the Australian Open.
Quentin Halys (79th) winner 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) of the Spaniard Pedro Martinez (121st), and Grégoire Barrère (65th) scorer 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 of the Russian Roman Safiullin (104), recorded their first victory in a Masters 1000.
The 26-year-old will then face Australian Alex De Minaur (18th). The second aged 29 will have even stronger to face the Briton Cameron Norrie (12th).
Finally, Benoît Paire (170th), was eliminated 6-4, 7-5 by the Japanese Yosuke Watanuki (123rd), who, like him, came from qualifying.
The 33-year-old Frenchman, who has gone through several seasons of discomfort, had regained his confidence a little ten days ago by winning the challenger tournament in Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. And he hung on in this match, although dominated in the exchange (34 winning moves for the Japanese against 18 for the French).
He even managed to unbreak at 4-2 in the second set to lead 5-4, but he was weighed down by his serve, committing his 10th and 11th double faults at 5-5 to again give up his serve and the match behind.
