Aurélien Canot, Media365, published on Sunday January 12, 2025 at 10:40 a.m.
After the painful qualification of Arthur Fils, Hugo Gaston also validated his ticket for the 2nd round of the Australian Open, this Sunday, by defeating the Australian Jasika in four sets.
Not sure it will last much longer. However, for the moment, it is one hundred percent for the French in the men’s table. Shortly after the qualification (in pain) of Arthur Fils at the expense of the Finnish Virtanen, Hugo Gaston also validated his ticket for the 2nd round, a stage of the tournament that he had already reached during the last edition. Like his young compatriot a little earlier, the Toulouse native started as a clear favorite despite his 81st place in the rankings against the Australian Omar Jasika, ranked 180th in the world. It was also the invitation from the organizers that allowed Jasika to find herself in the big picture. Gaston, who needed to reassure himself after leaving the Canberra (Challenger) and Adelaide tournaments, was able to hold his place and defeat himself in front of his audience (in four sets 6-2, 3-6, 6 -2, 6-2 and 2h33 of play) from this modest, not really sharp opponent who nevertheless looked like a perfect trap on paper. The 27-year-old Australian demonstrated it in the second set, the only one during which he really caused problems for the Frenchman, the only one also which saw him make doubt the one who had left the tournament at the start during his first two participations.
If Gaston starts hitting aces in spades…
Because the rest of the time, the former protégé of Marc Barbier, who was able to count on an imposing colony of French supporters already present in Melbourne, showed a lot of seriousness and constantly mastered his subject, helped in particular by the touch that We know him, against the poorly classified during this third duel between French and Australian players that the draw had reserved (Halys will face Walton, while Moutet will be opposed to Popyrin). Rare fact: Gaston even allowed himself to hit an impressive number of aces (12) for him who had not really accustomed us to such stats. Perhaps a good omen before perhaps challenging the Czech Jiri Lehecka, 29th in the world and opposed to another invited Australian: Alin Latu, in the next match.
