He joins a club that is as private as it is prestigious. Thanks to his snatched victory, Monday, at the end of the suspense (7-5, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3) against his compatriot Clément Chidekh in the 2nd round of qualifying, the Frenchman Moïse Kouamé opened wide the doors to the main draw of the ATP 250 tournament in Montpellier.
A first in the career of the young Ile-de-France native, he was born in Sarcelles (Val-d’Oise), which took the opportunity to mark the history of its sport.
At just 16 years and 333 days old, he becomes the 5th youngest tennis player “to qualify for an ATP tournament in the 21st century” according to the X account specializing in Game, Set and Maths.
He is only ahead of this symbolic ranking of precocious players by Richard Gasquet, who achieved this performance twice in Monte-Carlo in 2002 then in Adelaide in 2003, by the American Ryan Harrison (Houston in 2008), by the German of Ukrainian origin Rudolf Molleker (Hamburg 2017) and by a certain Rafael Nadal who escaped from the qualifying phases of the tournament of Monte-Carlo in 2003 at just 16 years and 315 days old.
Having gone from 1600th place in the world to 551st in the space of twelve months, Kouamé is also the youngest player in the Top 1000. He has two titles on the ITF circuit (the third level of professional tennis), all won this year, and remains on 12 victories on the circuit.
But after a 2025 season truncated by injuries, the one who is now coached by… Richard Gasquet, hopes not to stop there.
“Obviously I’m happy, I didn’t know it (Editor’s note: that he became the 2nd Frenchman to achieve such a performance after Gasquet), it shows that I’m progressing, that the training is bearing fruit, replied the person concerned at a press conference. So I really have to keep working every day, physically, technically, mentally. And then, once again, I hope to go as far as possible in this table. »
However, the mission promises to be delicate since he will face, on Wednesday in the first round of the main draw, the American Aleksandar Kovacevic, seeded n°8 and finalist last year in Montpellier.
