Aurélien Canot, Media365, published on Monday January 19, 2026 at 1:52 p.m.
While Adrian Mannarino and Terence Atmane joined the list of Frenchmen already eliminated in this Australian Open, qualifier Arthur Géa (21) created the sensation of the day by beating Jiri Lehecka, 19th in the world, in three sets for his very first match in a Grand Slam tournament. The tricolor hero will face future retiree Stan Wawrinka. Alexandre Muller also validated his ticket for the 2nd round, in the super tie-break against the Australian Popyrin.
This Arthur Géa is… giant! After the incredible epic of Loïs Boisson, semi-finalist at the last Roland-Garros, French supporters may have their new hero. Still unknown to everyone before becoming the only Frenchman in this edition to manage to climb into this big picture to which he was initially not invited, the native of Carpentras, only 21 years old, created the sensation of the day in Melbourne. Géa, already brilliant during qualifying (he had not lost a single set and had only dropped fourteen games out of the three matches he had won), struck even harder this Monday, by claiming the 19th in the world for his very first Grand Slam match.
And not only did the protégé of the Austrian Gerald Melzer sign a completely crazy feat by making Jiri Lehecka bite the dust for his debut in a Major, but this incredible Géa, still undefeated in 2026 after nine matches played, also defeated the number 17 seed (7-5, 7-6, 7-5) in the same way that he had dictated his law to his previous opponents. Impressive physically as in all his tennis shots and his knowledge of the game in this first Grand Slam match, the winner of the Nouméa Challenger, in New Caledonia, during his first tournament of the season, also demonstrated disconcerting mental strength to achieve the most beautiful victory of his young career, even though he has just entered the Top 200.
The 198th in the world had never faced a Top 20 player before. This was absolutely not seen on Monday. And it was with constant serenity and equally disconcerting confidence that he set out to destroy the Czech’s beautiful mechanics over the points, very quickly disgusted by his opponent’s play. Géa won the first set after achieving the first break of the match.
Muller at the end of the suspense
In the second set, the Vauclusien did even better, recovering from two breaks, including one at the start, to finally have the last word at the end of a decisive game which he overcame (7-1) in front of a tranced audience. The hero of this 2nd day could even have won even more easily afterwards, if he had not let his opponent restart when he had just taken his serve again. Not a problem, however, for the imperturbable and impressive 21-year-old qualifier, who took the lead once again, before giving himself three match points by scoring an ace on… second ball. The first was enough and here is the brilliant Géa in the 2nd round in Melbourne, where the future retiree Stan Wawrinka awaits him.
The native of Carpentras will give everything to achieve a new feat and thus make us forget the setbacks of the Blues so far in this Australian Open, even if Alexandre Muller is not one of our losers on this 2nd day. The Ile-de-France native, 52nd in the ranking, nevertheless suffered greatly against the Australian Alexei Popyrin (50th) whom he ended up overcoming in the… super tie-break (10-4) after finding himself on the brink of the abyss in the deciding game of the previous round, which had seen Popyrin lead 5 points to 2. Muller will challenge world number 3 Alexander Zverev, finalist of the last edition, in the next round.
Nothing is going well for Mannarino and Atmane!
Before Géa sent his fans into jubilation and Muller avoided further disillusionment in the French camp, Adrian Mannarino, who has still not won this season and has not tasted victory since the beginning of October, was corrected (6-3, 6-3, 6-1) against the modest Australian Ricky Hijikata. Terence Atmane will still have to wait before opening his account in a Grand Slam tournament.
Already out from the start during his four previous outings, the surprising semi-finalist of the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati last season, continued his very sad series by being plucked from the start (6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-1, 6-1) by the Italian qualifier Francesco Maestrelli, 141st in the world. Atmane, dominated in the first set, managed to take the lead by winning the next two sets before only scoring two games. Fortunately, there was Géa.
Worth a look
