After consecutive night sessions fell flat, Gael Monfils relished his role as the party starter on home soil and recovered from a seemingly improbable position to beat Sebastian Baez in a near four-hour thriller on Philippe-Chatrier. Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev both won clean while world no. 2 Daniil Medvedev was stunned by Brazil’s 23-year-old Thiago Seyboth Wild. Read on, for more…
Monfils’ midnight special overwhelms Baez
Monfils bt. Baez 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5
He was trailing early on, before the Parisian crowd defiantly lifted their man up again.
Then his encouraging lead disintegrated, losing ten of the next eleven games during a gripping contest. How would he recover? Down 4-0, 30-40 on serve and struggling physically, he needed to fight. That’s precisely what he did, one point at a time.
Baez’s form has admittedly been patchy since winning the Cordoba title in February, but he didn’t get to world no. 30 and narrowly outside the tournament’s 32 seeds here by accident. It showed in his play, and he was constantly problem-solving.
Some of the Argentine’s shot-making, especially sliding from corner to corner and defending powerful groundstrokes behind the baseline, was fantastic.
Yet that mammoth effort ultimately went unrewarded, as the partisan crowd sensed an opportunity for their man to claw his way back from the brink and so it proved.
Despite a 78% first serve percentage in the deciding set, Baez only won 43% (12/28) of points behind it as Monfils secured four consecutive breaks of serve. Aggressive and energised by some Baez errors, the pressure cooker flipped onto the 22-year-old.
Gael still had to produce some gutsy winners, like the backhand pass and line-kissing forehand, but momentum was firmly with him – Baez unable to stop the avalanche arriving at his feet as errors (0 in set four, 13 in decider) were spilling off his racquet.
It felt fitting then, that Monfils’ final shot to finish match point was a backhand pass that clipped off the net as it beat Baez, cramping and all. Unsurprisingly, he called it one of the greatest matches of his career. Up next? Holger Rune on Thursday.
Rune, Fritz and Gauff all safely through
The sixth seed, who won in Munich and reached the final of two other clay tournaments (Monte-Carlo and Rome) since mid-April, dropped a set but came through in four (6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2) against 27-year-old American Christopher Eubanks.
Elsewhere in that section, Taylor Fritz dropped just four games (6-2, 6-1, 6-1) during little over 90 minutes against compatriot Michael Mmoh – who memorably reached a career-best Major result in Melbourne as a lucky loser earlier this year.
Staying with the Americans, #16 seed Tommy Paul also won in straight-sets (6-3, 6-2, 6-4) against talented young Swiss Dominic Stricker, a lucky loser from qualifying.
Last year’s runner-up Coco Gauff was one of four more American women into R2, rallying from a set down to beat Rebeka Masarova (3-6, 6-1, 6-2). Lauren Davis, a Strasbourg semifinalist last week, prevailed 6-3, 6-3 against Lin Zhu elsewhere.
Main draw debutant and American wildcard Emma Navarro will play Bianca Andreescu in the same section as Davis, after their contrasting three-set victories.
Navarro beat lucky loser Erika Andreeva 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 while 2019 US Open champion Andreescu responded well to adversity and subsequently ousted Australian Open semifinalist Victoria Azarenka [18] 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 – hitting 47 winners along the way.
Who is atop that section, you ask? Well, world no. 1 and two-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek – who has insisted she is fully recovered from a leg injury.
She began her title defence with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa, who she beat in R3 at the Australian Open.
Elsewhere in the top-half of the draw, Russian teenage qualifier Mirra Andreeva won 6-2, 6-1 against Alison Riske-Amritraj.
The 16-year-old, who burst into prominence in Madrid last month, will now face French wildcard Diane Parry after the 20-year-old’s impressive straight-sets scalp at the expense of #25 seed Anhelina Kalinina. As for dark horse Elena Rybakina…
She’ll play Czech teenage prospects in consecutive rounds. After beating qualifier Brenda Fruhvirtova 6-4, 6-2… now she plays Linda Noskova, after the 18-year-old led 6-3, 2-1 against Danka Kovinic before the Montenegrin retired with a back injury.
Thiago through as Medvedev his own worst enemy
Seyboth Wild [Q] bt. Medvedev [2] 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (6-8), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
So, to properly contextualise the size of this stunning result, understand this: Thiago Seyboth Wild entered qualifying as one of the lowest-ranked players, and beat former top-50 players in Ricardas Berankis and Dominik Koepfer to reach R1.
Clay isn’t Daniil Medvedev’s favourite surface, but the former world no. 1 just won his first title on it in Rome nine days prior. Even the most optimistic of successful qualifiers wouldn’t have fancied their chances against the Russian at this stage.
Set one was all over the place, and naturally settled by a nailbiting tiebreak – just like the next one. Two hours down but two more to go, as Medvedev seemed in relative control and on his way to the finish line after seizing set three in half the time.
Set four quickly became an uneasy watch, as Daniil almost self-destructed before spectators’ eyes on Philippe-Chatrier. Having served ten double-faults in the first three sets, he coughed up four more and looked increasingly stressed. Rightly so.
He got into a funk, adamant nothing went his way – from narrow line calls and crowd booing to uncharacteristic errors – as his 23-year-old opponent could smell blood and tried compounding it with timely winners. Yet, the match was up for grabs.
Four successive breaks of serve later, midway through the deciding set no less, Medvedev was unable to win the final pressure point at 30-all down 5-4 and only has himself to blame for a startling first-round exit. Wild’s fairytale continues.
This marks Medvedev’s worst Major result since, you guessed it, Roland Garros three seasons ago where he lost in four sets to Marton Fucsovics.
What’s next?
Day 4: Matches to watch out for
ATP
Tallon Griekspoor vs. Hubert Hurkacz [13]
Carlos Alcaraz [1] vs. Taro Daniel
Lucas Pouille vs. Cameron Norrie [14]
Novak Djokovic [3] vs. Marton Fucsovics
WTA
Camila Giorgi vs. Jessica Pegula [3]
Yulia Putintseva vs. Qinwen Zheng [19]
Leylah Fernandez vs. Clara Tauson
Leolia Jeanjean vs. Elina Avanesyan
Picture source: Getty Images
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