After winning the first round in more than an hour and a half, Corentin Moutet (88th) was not able to drive home the point against the Chinese Shang Juncheng (111th), Wednesday evening, in the first round of the Masters 1000 of Madrid, and ended up admitting defeat after a Dantesque fight full of twists and turns (6-7 [9]6-2, 7-6 [10] in 3h57).
Up to 5-3 for the Frenchman, the progress of the match was rather classic, with two very skillful left-handers to handle the ball and Moutet more efficient than the young 19-year-old Chinese, throughout the first three quarters of the match. hour. It was 9 p.m. when we entered this dimension which suits so much the temperament and the game of the Parisian: a game of cat and mouse, both between the points and within them.
The fight became fierce, the exchanges spectacular, and the games stretched to the point that the first round alone contained 129 points and lasted 1h39! Moutet missed four balls at 6-3 then three at 6-4. He then saved three set points in the tie-break before pocketing it (11-9) on his ninth opportunity to conclude.
Neither espresso nor expulsion
But, still embarrassed by his right thigh affected in the last round of qualifying and wrapped in a large bandage, he quickly found himself trailing 3-0 in the second set, at which point he ordered a coffee in vain from the referee, who told him that this was not part of the tournament’s remit and that he had to ask someone from his staff to go get him one. It was finally a French supporter who brought him an espresso (with his sachet of sugar) four games later, collecting in return a t-shirt that the Frenchman sent him from his bench.
It was also at this change of sides, at 5-2 for Shang, that Moutet requested the intervention of the supervisor because he wanted a spectator to come out of the stands who had shouted “shut up!” a few minutes earlier. » (“shut up”) which stuck in his throat. As with the coffee, he was unsuccessful.
Watered from the back court
Joined at one set everywhere on a new break (7-6, 2-6), Moutet was dropped at the start of the third set (0-3). In the fourth game, at 15A, he was involuntarily sprayed by the court attendant positioned just behind his own, who moistened the ground too generously and this time got the point he had just lost to be replayed.
Under his guise as Calimero against the whole world, Moutet never really gives up. He saved a ball from 4-0, broke on a superb point concluded by a lob – topspin volley sequence and pulled back to 3-3. We had been playing since 3:07 a.m. and we were only forty minutes away from being Thursday!
Shang in turn superbly dismissed, with a well-taken forehand passing following a cushioned volley from the Frenchman, a break point, which would have earned Moutet to serve at 4-3. The Chinese saved one last one at 5-5. At ten minutes to midnight, and although Moutet’s right thigh seemed to be smoking everywhere, the decisive tie-break could begin.
Five match points saved in vain
The level of play took a nosedive but not the level of suspense. Moutet saved five match points before at 11-10, a final forehand winner along the line from the Chinese put an end to this madness, after midnight. The “Thank you Coco!, Thank you Coco!” » sung by the night owls at the edge of the court were not enough to boost the morale of the defeated.
In the second round, Shang Juncheng will face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (28th) on Friday and there is a chance, despite the Spaniard’s equally strong character, that the match will be less exceptional than that of this crazy evening in Madrid.
