The 21-year-old Lyonnais is the sensation of the moment in French tennis. After his tournament victories in Lyon and Basel, he rose to 31st place in the world. He will play on Saturday for a semi-final of this ATP 250 tournament in Brisbane… Possibly against Novak Djokovitch.
The essentials of the day: our exclusive selection
Every day, our editorial team reserves the best regional news for you. A selection just for you, to stay in touch with your regions.
France Télévisions uses your email address to send you the newsletter “The essentials of the day: our exclusive selection”. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link at the bottom of this newsletter. Our privacy policy
Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard: remember this name, you will surely find it again in the years to come. Aged 21, this Lyonnais was still ranked 205th in the world a year ago. But since then, water has flowed under the bridges and Giovanni won the ATP 250 tournament in Lyon and the ATP 500 in Basel. He is currently ranked 31st player in the world.
And right now, it's in Australia that he's making the talk. Equipped with formidable service, it has just opened its doors semi-finalsThe ATP 250 tournament in Brisbane by beating the Czech Jakub Mensik (48th) in two sets 7-5, 7-6 (7/5).
This new hope of French tennis is a right-hander who is starting to become known for his solidity on serve. He loves to string together aces: 19 in his last match against the 19-year-old Czech. He also enjoys it, like during his victory in Basel (Switzerland) where he thanked the linesmen and ball boys.because take firsts (balls) at 240 (km/h) it can hurt“.
In Brisbane, he successively beat the Australian Nick Kyrgios (7-6, 6-7, 7-6), the American and 18th in the world Frances Tiafoe (6-4, 7-6), and therefore Jakub Mensik (48th global).
Against the Czech, he only committed two double faults. Also being consistent on his second serve, he did not concede any break points and was able to convert one of the two break points he had.
In the tie-break, the Frenchman intelligently made the mini-break with a passing (4-2), which took Mensik out of his match somewhat. After a first match point saved by Mensik in the previous game, the Czech saved two more in the tie-break, on his serve.
But from his first opportunity on his serve, the Frenchman was able to finish, going up to the net to volley.
Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is now waiting to find out his opponent for the semi-finals. And it could well be that it is his eminence Novak Djokovic, aged 37 but still 7th in the world.
The former number one will face the American Reilly Opelka (293rd) on Friday evening. In the event of victory, he will find our young Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on his way. “Djoko” against “Gio”, a prospect that makes the Frenchman salivate.
