The day of the French: A big first for Couacaud!

THEY PASS

Quack: first attempt, master stroke

This is the first beautiful French surprise of this Roland-Garros 2021 and in the rather gloomy context that envelops French tennis, it should not be shunned. Pushed by the audience of court 9 which set a nice atmosphere, Enzo Couacaud crossed the first round on Sunday by beating in three sets and 2:15 hours of play the Belarusian Egor Gerasimov (7-6, 6-4, 6-3). A remarkable performance since it is the very first match played in a large Grand Slam table by the Franco-Mauritian.

After taking the first set in the tie-breaker, Couacaud experienced some emotional roller coaster ride in the next round. Debroken while serving for the set at 5-3, he immediately resumed the service of his opponent to lead two sets to nothing. The hard part was done and a new 3-2 break sealed the fate of the third act, and at the same time the match. 26-year-old Enzo Couacaud, 177th in the world, transforms his first attempt into a Grand Slam and justifies the invitation granted to him. He will face number 12 seed Pablo Carreno Busta in the next round.

THEY BREAK

Barrère was no match for

For his fifth participation at Roland Garros in the big picture, Gégoire Barrère will have made only a very small appearance. It was barely more than 1 p.m. this Sunday when the native of Charenton-le-Pont left the Suzanne-Lenglen court, after an express defeat against Fabio Fognini (6-4, 6-1, 6-4). This is the fourth time that Barrère has left the Porte d’Auteuil entrance. Despite a start at the end of the third set to come back from 5-1 to 5-4, Barrère started from too far to hope to get out of it.

Regrets for Burel

Sacred fight on the Simonne-Mathieu court between Clara Burel and Montenegrin Danka Kovinic. 2h11 of match for two sets, 80 minutes for the only second round, but on arrival, a defeat full of regrets for the young French 20 years old, beaten 6-3, 7-6.

Tricolor revelation among the ladies of the 2020 edition, of which she had reached the third round, Burel could blame herself for not having been able to drive the point home when she had the opportunity. During the second act, especially, where it served for the set before getting a set point in the tie-break. But she narrowly missed the key moments.

Jacquemot logically crunched

She expected nothing more than to regain the thrill of playing Roland-Garros. But Elsa Jacquemot, 492nd in the world and recipient of an invitation, could not do anything against Kazakhe Elena Rybakina, seed number 21, who logically beat her in two dry sets (6-4, 6-1 ) and 1h21 of play. Like last year, the young Frenchwoman therefore left the Parisian Major in the first round. But the main thing was undoubtedly elsewhere for the defending champion in juniors, who was able to take the opportunity to meet the demands of the high level. Rybakina, who will be 22 on June 17, will face Nao Hibino (82nd) ​​or Nina Stojanovic (87th) in the next round. In two participations so far, she has never reached the third round at Roland Garros.