the will-o’-the-wisp Corentin Moutet finally extinguished by Jannik Sinner – Libération

Roland-Garros 2024dossierDespite a great fight, the whimsical 25-year-old was knocked out by the ruthless Italian world number 2 on Sunday June 2 in the evening, in four sets (2-6, 6-3, 6-2 , 6-1). France only has one representative left in the tournament.

The second week begins and there are already no more French people in the men’s draw at Roland-Garros. Corentin Moutet, however, had a set and a break in advance against world number 2 Jannik Sinner, before finally losing (2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1) in the round of 16 of the tournament Parisian Sunday June 2 in the evening evening.

Moutet’s Parisian week (79th) nevertheless remains a success. “I beat good players, had good matches, held up physically, had a good level of concentration. I didn’t take any warnings during four matches, which doesn’t happen often to me!”, smiled the man who defines himself as “complete”. “I hope people discovered me in a different form.”

Sixteen months after an operation on his left wrist – after which he played his one-handed backhand for a while – the 25-year-old tennis player made it to the round of 16 for the first time at Roland-Garros, for the second time in Grand Slam (after the US Open 2022). Above all, he will make a jump in the rankings on June 10, not far from the top 50, which opens the doors to the Olympic Games in less than two months in Paris, again on the courts of Roland-Garros.

“There is a great program awaiting me: Wimbledon, I love playing on grass, the Olympics in Paris, only good things,” Moutet envisages. His rise in the rankings will “make his task easier,” he explains. “I will finally be able to play the biggest tournaments (on the circuit), playing better players every week, that’s what helps me progress too.”

On the Central Court finally revealed on Sunday evening, even revealing the blue sky, Moutet experienced a dream first set. Drop shots galore, lobs, passings, crashing slices, and even spoon serve: against the world number 2, the strong man of the first part of the season, winner of the Australian Open in January, who could become world No.1 at the end of the Paris fortnight, the little left-hander deployed his full range of shots. Enough to make Sinner go crazy, quickly trailing 5-0 and who had to wait 29 minutes to register his first game.

Although he did not convert two 6-0 balls, Moutet pocketed the first set on his third opportunity. In the process, in a stadium sensitive to his genius – as evidenced by the “Moutet, Moutet, Moutet” chanted while prostrating himself, arms up and down -, he broke from the start in the second set, putting in and putting in again , until Sinner cracked.

But under his red curls, the young Italian knew how to keep a cool head: he immediately got back together and gradually found a solution to the paws of his atypical opponent, until winning in 2 h 41 min.

Gracheva to save French honor

Moutet is still chasing a first victory at the expense of a top 10 player. He has just experienced his twelfth defeat against one of his members. Richard Gasquet will remain, for at least one more year, the last Frenchman to have made a place in the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros, eight years ago.

Sinner dropped his first set since the start of the tournament. With a quarter-final, he equals his best result on Parisian clay. If he were to qualify for the final, he would be guaranteed to become world number 1 on June 10. He will also succeed if Novak Djokovic, currently installed on the throne of world tennis, does not reach the final. For a place in the last four, Sinner will face world No.10 Grigor Dimitrov, for the first time in the quarter-finals on Parisian clay, at 33 years old.

There remains one French player entered in the women’s draw: Varvara Gracheva (88th), opposed in the round of 16 on Monday to the young Russian nugget Mirra Andreeva.