The three Frenchmen competing on Saturday in the third round of the US Open, Richard Gasquet, Alizé Cornet and Clara Burel, have been eliminated. Only Caroline Garcia and Corentin Moutet remain in the race in the round of 16.
Richard Gasquet logically gave in against Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard was ruthless to sweep the Biterrois 6-0, 6-1, 7-5 in 2:17, inflicting on him an 18th defeat in as many confrontations between the two players.
In front of nearly 24,000 spectators, in a night session on the Arthur-Ashe court, Nadal imposed a showdown on Gasquet (91st) from the start of the match, not hesitating to play on the backhand of the Frenchman, yet his shot strong.
“The 6-0 in the first set hurts me. The set lasts three quarters of an hour, I have a lot of break points, game points on my service … ”, regretted Gasquet.
“At the beginning, I served very, very badly and then I took a little pressure. But he is much stronger than me, he really cancels all my strength and at no time do I manage to have a little strategy, a little air, ”he admitted, however.
Symbolically, it was on an unforced backhand fault that he offered the first set to Nadal. At 6-0, 3-0, Gasquet, supported by the public who felt he was in distress, ended up winning his first game, raising his arms in a cross to the ovation of the public.
But he committed too many unforced errors (29) and was too delicate with his service (7 double faults in total and 57% of first serves) to worry Nadal.
” Nothing special “
“I managed to relax in the third set and I felt he was less good, he made a few double faults. Well, I didn’t have break points either, there was nothing extraordinary, but I could have gone to the tie break and won that set, but the victory was still very far away. , analyzed Gasquet.
“He’s stronger, there’s nothing to say and I’m glad I didn’t play him in the first round! “, he added. Also 36, he reached the last four at Flushing Meadows in 2013, but hasn’t made it past the third round since 2018.
Bis repeated for Alizé Cornet: the 40th in the world was beaten 6-4, 7-6 (11/9) by the American Danielle Collins (19th) who had put an end at the start of the season to the most beautiful course of the French in Grand Slam, in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.
The American scored the break in the first set to break away 3-2 and was not caught again. In the second round, each player kept her face-off until the tie break.
The Frenchwoman got three balls to equalize at one set everywhere, but it was finally Collins who concluded on her second match point.
Record
At 32, Cornet has never passed the round of 16 in New York and remained on elimination as soon as he entered the competition in 2021.
In addition to her quarter in Melbourne, she was then beaten in the 3rd round at Roland-Garros and in the round of 16 at Wimbledon where she had dismissed world No.1 Iga Swiatek in the third round, thus ending a series of 37 victories. consecutive from the Polish.
Cornet set a new record of 63 consecutive Grand Slam appearances in New York, bettering the one she co-held from Wimbledon with Japan’s Ai Sugiyama.
As for Clara Burel’s superb career, it came to an abrupt end: the 131st in the world, from qualifying, found herself powerless against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (6th) who swept her away 6-0, 6-2.
The Frenchwoman participated at the age of 21 in her second New York Major (elimination in the first round in 2021) and equaled her best Grand Slam result there, already achieved at Roland-Garros in 2020.
This season, she was eliminated in the first round of the first three Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon).
