January 26, 2024 10:58 Liège
David Goffin will lose the status of Belgian N.1 following his defeat in the 2nd round of the BW Open, the Louvain-la-Neuve Challenger tennis tournament, a hard-court event worth 148,625 euros, Thursday at Blocry. Title holder, he was beaten by the Jordanian Abdullah Shelbayh (ATP 191), 6-3, 6-4 in just under an hour and a half. The Liégeois, best Belgian player in the ATP rankings for more than ten years, will be overtaken by Zizou Bergs next Monday.
Goffin missed five break points from the start before conceding the first four games of the match. He was unable to recover from his two breaks behind and gave up the first round to Shelbayh. In the second set, the 5th seed of the BW Open wasted three new break points before conceding his serve himself. The Jordanian then only had to defend his commitment to end the game on his second match point.
On July 22, 2013, David Goffin once again became the highest ranked Belgian player at the ATP, moving to 86th, ahead of Xavier Malisse then ranked 90th. He has not lost this status since, managing to enter the top-10 and even reaching 7th place at the end of 2017. He will only be ranked 133rd at best on Monday, while Zizou Bergs should be 130th. After the eliminations of Raphaël Collignon (ATP 391) and Gauthier Onclin (ATP 218) in the 2nd round, there is no longer a Belgian in the BW Open singles table. In doubles, Collignon with Michael Geerts and Simon Much with Jack Loge were also knocked out in the first round.
Source : Belga
