He hoped to collect in Basel the points that would still separate him from the world top 20 but Adrian Mannarino, beaten Tuesday evening in the first round of the Swiss ATP 500 by the Chilean Nicolas Jarry, 20th ATP (7-6 [6]6-7 [2]6-4 in 3h14), will still have to wait to reach this symbolic milestone.
At the end of a difficult season for organizations, where mental freshness is only a distant memory, Adrian Mannarino is battling fatigue to stay on track. And it was with great frustration that he left Court No. 1 in Basel on Tuesday at around 11 p.m.
Titled twice this season, in Newport and in Astana, 24th ATP this week, two units from his absolute record, Mannarino, 35, felt, after his title in Kazakhstan, at the beginning of October, that he was going to have to hang on to manage the home stretch of 2023 well. Released in his second match in Shanghai (Rublev) then in Stockholm (Monfils), this time he fell from the start.
It’s up to Ugo Humbert to take over
The left-hander nevertheless obtained two set points, at 6-4 in the tie-break of the first set, then he obtained the first break point of the third set, at 3-3. Except that Jarry then served one of his 23 aces and then it was he who rushed into the first gap left by the Frenchman, at 5-4. A final winning backhand passing allowed the Chilean to qualify for the 2nd round, which will pit him on Thursday against the winner of the match scheduled for Wednesday between Ugo Humbert (28th) and the American Marcos Giron (57th).
