A little too close, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard folded and ended up breaking against Reilly Opelka, and stopped in the semi-final in Brisbane.
So far, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard had been impeccable in Brisbane. Three victories over Nick Kyrgios, Frances Tiafoe et Jakub Menšíksolid opponents who nevertheless bowed under the strike force of the Habs. His semi-final today, however, did not promise to be under the same auspices, since he faced Reilly Opelkain supersonic service like him, and who had won the day before an improbable success on Novak Djokovic.
It was therefore a battle of aces and tiebreaks that was expected. A state of affairs which was shattered in two games, mainly because the Frenchman had absolutely not entered the match and had left his first in the locker room. Result: he was broken from his first throw in, made easier by two double faults, and forced to chase the score. But in the seventh game, after saving four break points, Opelka grimaced and seemed to be suffering from the wrist which had prevented him from playing for two years, prompting the intervention of the physiotherapist. Which did not prevent him from completing the set with a lot of heavy firsts.
In the second set, however, we had what we expected. Big serves galore, a single break point – saved by the Frenchman – short rallies and mastery of the servers, who inevitably headed towards a tiebreak. Under high tension, Opelka was the first to make the mini break, then the Frenchman soaped the board with a double fault, leaving his rival to conclude 6-3, 7-6 (4). Too bad for the Frenchman, who lost for the first time in his career in the semi-final. Opelka, him, will aim for a new title after two years of struggle against Jiří Lehečka.
