Frenchman Richard Gasquet (45th in the world) lost in the first round of the ATP 250 tournament in Montpellier on Monday, beaten by his young compatriot Arthur Fils (163rd) in two sets 7-5, 7-5 and 1h01 of play. With the surprise victory, the 18-year-old earns his first match on the main circuit, having secured his maiden Challenger title last month in Oeiras, Portugal.
In this meeting in the form of a handover between two generations, Richard Gasquet (36), winner at the start of the year of the Auckland tournament, led 3-1 in the first set, and had several balls from double breaks before seeing Fils chain 5 games to finally win the first set in 51 minutes.
Pair out in qualifying
At the end of a very tight second round, the Musketeer finally had to bow in the first round, like at the Australian Open where he had been sharply beaten by Humbert in mid-January, but for the first time. at this level of the Montpellier tournament in ten appearances. Son won on the first of his three match points. He will face the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, seeded n ° 4 and 24th in the world in the next round.
Earlier, it was another Frenchman, Benoît Paire, who fell to 213th in the world, who saw his career at the Open Sud de France come to an end. The Avignonnais, in search of a return to his best level, did not come out of qualifying, beaten 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 after 1h26 of play by the young Italian Luca Nardi (19 years old), 164th at the ATP.
Source: Europe1
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