Un thriller dantesque et Hugo Gaston écarte Alex de Minaur en cinq sets (4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 0-6, 7-6)

Again, the magic worked. While he had only won a match on clay in preparation for Munich, Hugo Gaston rekindled the flame in front of the overheated public at the Suzanne-Lenglen court. In Paris, the animal has taken the good habit of transcending itself and Alex de Minaur, seeded 19th in the tournament, learned it the hard way this Tuesday at the start of the evening. At the end of a crazy match, the young Frenchman won on the wire in the super tie-break of the 5th set (4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 0-6, 7-6) in almost four hours of play (3h59 exactly). In the second round of Roland-Garros, he will be opposed to the lucky Argentinian loser Pedro Cachin.

He mimed a heart with his hands to the spectators who carried him from end to end. Ecstatic, Hugo Gaston did it again. Never more dangerous than when he is not expected – his results in recent weeks not arguing in his favor – and especially on the biggest stages of tricolor tennis, he has driven Alex de Minaur mad who, despite his will and his character eye-catching, ended up laying down arms. The Australian was coming out of a beautiful spring on ocher (semi-finals in Barcelona and Lyon), but nothing helped.

A “Gastonian” scenario and a crazy audience

It is difficult to find an adjective to describe the scenario of this part. Perhaps we should now speak of a “Gastonian” match, to describe the sweet madness that took hold of the Suzanne-Lenglen court. What can I say except that the mess of reversals of the situation were the leitmotif of this direct but fascinating 1st wireless tour. Just the appearance of the first set set the tempo: with an entry break (3-0), Gaston obtained three double break points at 0/40, all saved by De Minaur. Then the Aussie scored five of the next six games to take the lead.

The two players thus proceeded by series, the Frenchman seeming in turn to take the advantage completely by removing the two following sets. This was without counting the 9 games in a row scored by De Minaur in stride to take a good option on victory (4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 0-6, 0-3). But as the finish line neared, Gaston tipped the fifth act into another dimension. Returning to height, he then served twice for the match at 5-4 and 6-5, in vain. Seized by the beginnings of cramps, he could have plunged. Nay!

With his left-handed forehand topspin, he focused on fixing his opponent diagonally to accelerate on a crossback and break away in the super tie-break. And his perpetual changes of pace ended up sickening De Minaur. On one of his now famous amortized, Gaston went to conquer a victory that bears his trademark. Paris is definitely his home.