“I’m talking to you about a time that those under 20 cannot know.” Iconic words which take on their full meaning for Arnaud Clément's title in 2003. The Frenchman was then the first player to lift the Moselle Open trophy. Narrative.
Who other than a Frenchman to win the very first edition of the Moselle Open in Metz in 2003? Seeded number 4 in the tournament, it took 3 sets for Arnaud Clément to pocket his second ATP title of his career against the Chilean Fernando González. During the week, he swept aside his opponents by not conceding a single round until this last step leading him to the trophy.
Ironically, the native of Aix-en-Provence is the second Frenchman to win an ATP tournament that season after a certain Julien Boutter. The Mosellan was also supposed to compete in the Moselle Open but injured, it was from the stands that the current tournament director witnessed the victory of the southerner.
Furthermore, it is notably thanks to Julien Boutter that Metz regained this date in the ATP calendar, after Toulouse was unable to keep it. A double blue-white-red victory at the time, founding for the Moselle Open, a competition which subsequently fell into the hands of the French twelve times out of twenty editions.
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