This ace at the T, at 206 km / h, which validated his clear victory against Quentin Halys, Monday, in the second and last round of qualifying for the Moselle Open (6-3, 6-4), Evan Furness (208th ATP) l welcomed with a beautiful cry of joy but not either with mad intoxication: “I was above all too happy to have finished the match, and to have made a bit of a perfect copy”he smiles.
This success is however highly symbolic, doubly even. Beyond constituting the best victory of his career (Quentin Halys is 86th at the ATP this week), it will allow this 24-year-old Breton in pocket format (1.73 m, officially) to finally taste the main circuit.
Trained very early by his dad Mark, an Englishman from Sheffield who had settled in Pontivy at the age of 20, he won his first success quite young (the only one, until Monday) against a member of the top 100 At 19, in 2017, against Marcos Baghdatis at the German Challenger tournament in Eckental. “I couldn’t forget that moment. Especially since my father was a fan of this player; then to call him to tell him that I had beaten him, it had been a great moment. I had gone there alone, I felt like I was a bit heroic. »
About a quarter of an hour…
First title in Futures (the professional D3) in 2018 but the time then seemed to lengthen for Furness. It only entered the top 400 in February 2021 and then entered the top 300 four months later. Top 200? It could be for next Monday, and the result of a nice adventure, since he almost missed the deadline to register for the Metz tournament: “We saw that the entry list was gradually emerging so we decided to hit the road on Saturday, with my coach (Glenn Le Floch-Moën) and my buddy. We had been driving for almost six hours when I realized that I had forgotten to sign (the list of registered qualifiers in Metz). The deadline was 6 p.m., I still have the 5:44 p.m. message on my phone…” Within a quarter of an hour, they would have driven for nothing. It was still necessary to integrate the qualifying table, which was done in extremis, thanks to the last minute withdrawal from the Russian Roman Safiulin, which offered him the status ofalternate.
“Adrenaline, that’s what we love”
The rest, Furness took care of it on his own, achieving two “perfs” against Geoffrey Blancaneaux, 144th (6-7, 7-5, 6-2) then, therefore, Quentin Halys. Winner of his first Challenger title on May 1, in Ostrava, he will play his first match in an ATP 250 against Alexander Bublik on Wednesday. It will be the first time that he will measure himself against a top 50 (the Kazakh is 44th) but he does not make a world of it: “I don’t feel brand new, no; on the contrary, I try to use the experience I’ve had since I was 18 as a pro. I trust the people around me and what I do. I focus on the pleasure, I also think that I will never be tired of the competition. Arriving on the court, for this first round, I’m going to be stressed, that’s for sure, but it’s great, it’s adrenaline, that’s what we love. »
