The will of Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the 1st round of the Masters 1000 at Bercy against the American Tommy Paul on October 30, 2023 in Paris (Dimitar DILKOFF)
Zero out of four: with the defeat of Richard Gasquet against world No.12 Tommy Paul 0-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) despite three match points, none of the four French people competing on Monday at the Masters 1000 of Paris has not made it past the first round.
Before Gasquet, Adrian Mannarino, 25th in the world and N.1 tricolor, titled in Astana at the beginning of October, and the young Luca Van Assche (69th) suffered the same fate a few minutes apart earlier in the day. Alexandre Muller (83rd) was the first to give in.
It is now up to the other four entered on Tuesday, in detail Gaël Monfils, the promise Arthur Fils, Ugo Humbert and Benjamin Bonzi, to avoid a similar scenario.
Last chance to avoid zero out of four Monday evening, Gasquet (68th) came within one point of achieving the feat against Paul, who can still dream of qualifying for the Masters at the end of the season, which will bring together the top 8 in Turin (Italy) mid-November, even if a combination of circumstances would be in his favor.
At the end of the match that suddenly became electric, the 37-year-old from Biterrois, leading 5 games to 2 in the third set, double break in favor of his American opponent, first managed to equalize at 5-5. Then he went so far as to lead 6 points to 3 in the decisive tie-break. But an ugly double fault committed on his last opportunity to conclude definitively deprived the Frenchman of victory, despite the noisy support of the Bercy public who had celebrated him with an ola at the penultimate change of sides. Two points later, it was Paul who won, taking advantage of a final return that was slightly too long.
Well before, Gasquet had gotten off to a great start, 6-0 in 27 minutes in the first set, before Paul regained his senses.
– Sons and Monfils Tuesday –
Opposed to the Dutchman Botic Van De Zandschulp (60th), Mannarino (35 years old) lacked serenity, once is not customary. This is evidenced by this smashed racket at the end of the second set. In this second set, he twice erased a break behind, before equalizing at five games all, but a final unforced error cost him the set and the match, 6-4, 7-5.
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“It was a bad match,” said Mannarino. “I missed everything a bit (…) I think it’s one of the first poor performances I’ve had here. I’m very frustrated and very disappointed to lose in the first round.”
A few moments later, on the more modest court N.1, it was Van Assche who ended up losing to the Serbian Laslo Djere (34th), 6-7 (6/8), 6-4, 6-4.
After closing a 5 games to 1 deficit in the first set, the 19-year-old French hopeful seemed to have done the hard part when he took off 3 games to 0 in the second set. But Djere found the resources to turn the situation around.
Van Assche will therefore have to wait until 2024 to obtain his first Masters 1000 victory.
Son, a few weeks older than Van Assche, has three of him (1 in Rome, 2 in Shanghai). Having climbed to 36th place in the world, with a very first title in Lyon and a recent final in Antwerp, he will face the German Daniel Altmaier (54th) on Tuesday.
Monfils will start against the Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo (21st), Humbert (26th) against the American Marcos Giron (59th), and Bonzi (77th) against the Serbian Dusan Lajovic (48th).
At the start of the day, Muller had folded 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 against the Russian from qualifying Roman Safiullin (45th), first opponent of world No.2 Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday evening.
es-tmn/chc
2023-10-30 23:23:23
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