Lucas Pouille acquired his qualification for the main draw of Roland-Garros this Friday against the Austrian Jurij Rodionov. A rebirth for the French demoted to 670th place in the ATP ranking.
This is probably the best story of Roland-Garros qualifying this year. Disappeared from the radar for several seasons, Lucas Pouille is making a sensational comeback. Demoted to 670th in the ATP rankings, the former winner of the Montpellier (2018) and Metz (2016) tournaments seems to be finding a second youth at 29 in the Roland-Garros qualifications. Plagued by mental concerns, the tennis player recently admitted to having experienced depression and alcoholism.
This Thursday, Lucas Pouille is clearly past from shadow to light by qualifying for the main draw of Roland-Garros. Victorious in his first two qualifying matches for the Parisian Grand Slam tournament, against the Czech Tomas Machac then against the Taiwanese Chun Hsin Tseng, the Northerner did it again in front of the Austrian Jurij Rodionov (1-6, 7-5, 6-0 ). And with manner. While he gave up the first set to his opponent in the big widths (1-6), he found the necessary resources to reverse the course of a badly embarked match.
Lucas Pouille qualified for the main draw!! #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/dAuGivNeiS
— FFT (@FFTennis) May 25, 2023
In addition to having fed on the many unforced errors of the Austrian (35 in total), Lucas Pouille harassed the number 22 seed in return for service to regain the upper hand in the second set (7-5). Before taking place in the final act to close the deal in 29 minutes (6-0). Holder of an invitation to take part in the qualifications of Roland-Garros, the former winner of the Davis Cup with the Blues (2017) will therefore find the main draw of the tournament on clay at Porte d’Auteuil.
Source of inspiration for Blancaneaux and Lokoli?
Invited by the organizers, last year he lost in the first round against the Czech Zdenek Kolar. You have to go back to 2019 to find traces of a victory, it was against Simone Bolelli. And among the other French qualifiers this year, Geoffrey Blancaneaux is also on a walk from happiness, he will challenge the American Nava to integrate the main draw. Also on assignment at the same stage of the competition, Laurent Lokoli will cross swords with the Italian Flavio Cobolli this Friday.
