Arthur Fils and Arthur Rinderknech qualified for the second round of the Lyon tournament, unlike Richard Gasquet, beaten for the second time in four days by Mikael Ymer.
Seven French people were present in the first round of the Lyon tournament, and there will be at least three in the second round! After Grégoire Barrère on Sunday, it was indeed the two Arthur, Son and Rinderknech, who validated their ticket for the round of 16 on Monday. Son (112th), who will turn 19 next month, got rid of the 70th player in the world, the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang, who won 6-3, 6-2 in 1h13. The great hope of French tennis was notably able to rely on six aces and 53% of first serves, even if that did not prevent him from being broken twice. The Chinese was also the first to take the opposing serve, but Fils responded in the best possible way, winning four games in a row, and therefore the first set. On his way, the young Frenchman won five games in a row, before losing his serve. But he didn’t panic, saved a 5-3 ball and finished with his face-off.
In the next round, Fils will be opposed to the Swede Mikael Ymer, 53rd in the world, who, after beating Richard Gasquet four days ago in the quarter-finals of the Bordeaux Challenger, again beat the Biterrois, on the land of Lyon. He won 6-3, 7-5 after a great battle of 1h52, and the Frenchman’s victories counter on the ATP circuit therefore remains stuck at 598 (the 600th at Roland-Garros?). Ymer notably served seven aces, while Gasquet settled for 46% of first serves. The Swede led 3-1 in the first set, then the French erased one of his late breaks (3-2), before once again losing his serve (4-2) and letting his opponent pocket the first set. In the second, Ymer broke at 1-1 and held his advantage until 5-4, where the Frenchman, after a long and magnificent exchange, managed to equalize at 5-5. Enough to make him forget his anger against the referee, who felt that the Swede was taking too long to serve. Unfortunately, Gasquet failed to follow up and lost his serve again. He will be able to take the direction of Paris.
Rinderknech solide
Arthur Rinderknech (78th) was playing his fourth match of the season on clay, and he qualified at the expense of South African qualifier Lloyd Harris (306th): 6-4, 6-2 in 1h29. The French served three aces and saved the four break points that his opponent got. He took Harris’ serve at 4-4 in the first set, then made a great start to the second set by leading 4-0, before holding on to the end and winning on his third match point. Next opponent: the 52nd world Brandon Nakashima, who eliminated Diego Schwartzman with the score of 7-5, 6-3 in 2h01 in a match with eight breaks. It also goes for the No. 5 seed, Miomir Kecmanovic: 6-1, 6-3 against Oriol Roca Batalla.
