Aurélie SACCHELLI, Media365, published on Tuesday June 28, 2022 at 6:52 p.m.
For the first time in his career, Hugo Gaston has won a Grand Slam match outside of Roland-Garros. It was this Tuesday in the first round of Wimbledon against Alexei Popyrin.
Two first rounds at the Australian Open, no match in the main draw at Wimbledon and the US Open, a round of 16 and a third round at Roland-Garros… Hugo Gaston’s Grand Slam record in outside the Porte d’Auteuil was catastrophic, but he finally won his first Major victory elsewhere than on clay this Tuesday at Wimbledon. The 21-year-old Toulousain fought for 3h12 but he ended up getting rid of Alexei Popyrin, lower ranked than him (66th against 83rd) with the score of 6-2, 4-6, 0-6, 7-6 , 6-3 in a match with thirteen breaks. Gaston started the match well by leading 6-2, 4-2, but then he experienced a big black hole and lost ten games in a row! In the fourth set, the French found himself trailing 5-3, but he was able to find the resources to unbreak, then win 7-3 in the tie-break, before breaking at the start of the last set and the carry. Gaston has come a long way! But he is the seventh French player qualified for the second round, and he will face Lorenzo Sonego, 54th in the world, who also struggled for five sets and 3h51 of play to dominate Denis Kudla 6-7, 6-3, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2. The Italian leads 2-0 in their confrontations.
Rune already out
or Kudla. In the same quarter of the table, note the elimination of Roland-Garros quarter-finalist Holger Rune (n°24), beaten at the start in Halle and Eastbourne, and who this time lost 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 against Marcos Giron, whom he never managed to break, and the qualification of Botic van de Zandschulp (n°21), winner of veteran Feliciano Lopez (40) with a score of 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 serving 10 aces and never losing his face-off.
