Luca Van Assche has confirmed his good form at the moment. Titled Sunday in Challenger and freshly landed in the world top 100, the 18-year-old Frenchman signed his first victory on the ATP circuit on Tuesday.
After several entry eliminations this season on the big circuit, this time he crossed the first round by dominating the Portuguese veteran Pedro Sousa in Estoril (5-7 [5], 6-3, 6-1). He will find the Spaniard Alejandro Favidovich Fokina.
Faced with Sousa, down to 475th in the world and who will hang up the racket in a few days, Van Assche did not have the easy part. He even complicated the task by misplacing in the decisive game a first set which he had nevertheless had in hand by breaking the first.
But the Portuguese surprised him and almost took the service of the French at the dawn of the second act. Yannick Quéré’s protege recovered perfectly before dominating the rest of the game.
