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Last French to compete in Roland-Garros qualifying, Evan Furness falls to Jenson Brooksby despite three match points

There is no guarantee that another match in the next fortnight will be as full of emotions of all kinds as the last qualifying round between the last Frenchman in contention, Evan Furness, on Friday ( 22 years old, 329th ATP) to an American who hasn’t finished getting the word out about him.

Jenson Brooksby, 163rd in the world, is only 20 years old but already has the distinction of being the one who ended Tomas Berdych’s career, in the first round of the US Open 2019. Only 20 years old but already a reading of the game fit for a veteran.

Opposite, Friday, for the very last qualifying match of this Roland 2021, it was not bad either! Very catchy, with a clean technique placed on very stable supports and a first serve ball much more effective than his 73 meter would suggest, Evan Furness could have, should have, put an end to the very first tournament of Brooksby’s career on European clay.

He led 7-6, 5-4, 40/0! Three big table balls, for someone who has never tasted the main ATP circuit before, that was something huge. But apart from the first match point, where he made the mistake, Furness will have nothing to regret on the next two, including one where a floating return from the American landed on the line. To stay alive, at that point, Brooksby hit two winning laser shots and, of course, gave two howls of joy. Didn’t we tell you? Brooksby makes a lot of noise when playing, sometimes so out of touch with his strike that the scream comes just before the opponent’s shot. Furness’s hearing, who complained several times about the noise level to the referee, was put to the test during the 3:22 hours of a pretty epic fight.

Brooksby the Magnificent

Maybe not knowing Furness has an English daddy, hence many “Come on!” “Brooksby began to let go of” Come on! Provocative throughout the match. He especially made the French goat with his alien tennis. A technique to which one can hardly attribute the qualifier “fluid” with, among others, a forehand prepared left arm curled up, a second service ball of youngest, rising grip, backhand volleys very cut with two hands and others. incongruities sometimes reminiscent of the German Florian Mayer. All with an exceptional vista and a bubbling character that sometimes led him, after his own winning shots, to let out a few “Too good!” ”(“ Too loud! ”) Surprising.

When, at the start of the third set of this chess-like boxing match, security kicked all the observers of court n ° 13 from the stands, including Davis Cup captain DTN and the high level manager, because the event was behind closed doors and it was not visible enough, we said to ourselves that this extended match was definitely entering another dimension.

Emmanuel Planque, Fiona Ferro and Paul-Henri Mathieu were in the front row of the last match of the qualifications of Roland-Garros this Friday. (P. Lahalle / The Team)

To the rhythm of ambulance sirens or firefighters and a few cars producing unconscious accelerations on the neighboring Boulevard d’Auteuil, Jenson Brooksby obviously never let go, putting an end to French hopes of placing a qualified in the table final this year (6-7 (5), 7-6 (2), 6-4).

Once again hyper calm once the nice hug given to his loser, the young American then discussed his match at length with his coach, sitting in the stands, while a string of ball collectors was also debriefed by their manager, a few rows higher. . There was only them. The qualifiers were over, Roland-Garros was emptying. While waiting for Sunday and the kickoff of the final table. Jenson Brooksby, fourteen wins in seventeen matches this year, will discover the strikes of the other UFO of the start of the season: Aslan Karatsev. Not to be missed, of course.

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