A Franco-French duel on a packed court, if the ground wasn’t blue we would have thought we were at Roland-Garros. Gaël Monfils got the better of Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (30th) in front of an audience of experts, in the first round of the Australian Open (7-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-7, 6-4) . This is the 6th victory in a row for the French veteran, winner of the Auckland tournament a few days ago.
The Monf, however, saw a disaster scenario emerge in which his young opponent, a formidable server, knocked him down after saving a match point in the tie-break of the third round. Mpetshi Perricard had done the hardest part by coming back from two sets behind, but his lack of experience at this level and the energy provided to undertake such a comeback cost him a fatal break at the start of the 5th set. A godsend for Gaël Monfils, who just had to continue as he had done so far, namely by serving well and not conceding the slightest break point.
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Aged 38, the indestructible Parisian is playing his 19th Australian Open. He will face the German Daniel Altmaier or the Argentinian Francisco Comesana in the next round. Both players are lower ranked than him, but we will now have to see how he copes with this heavy fight lasting almost four hours on his legs.
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