After winning the first round by more than an hour and a half, Corentin Moutet (88th) failed to drive home the point against China’s Shang Juncheng (111th), on Wednesday night, in the first round of the Masters 1000 in Madrid, ending up with admitting defeat after a Dantesque battle full of twists and turns (6-7 [9]6-2, 7-6 [10] about 3h57).
Up 5-3 for the Frenchman, the course of the match was quite classic, with two very skilled left-handers handling the ball and Moutet more effective than the young 19-year-old Chinese, through the first three quarters of the match. match time. It was 9:00 pm when we entered this dimension that suits the temperament and game of the Parisian so well: a game of cat and mouse, both between the points and within them.
The match was fierce, the exchanges spectacular, and the matches stretched to the point that the first round alone contained 129 points and lasted 1h39! Moutet missed four balls at 6-3 and then three at 6-4. He then saved three set points in the tie-break before pocketing it (11-9) on his ninth opportunity to finish.
Neither espresso nor expulsion
But, still embarrassed by the right thigh affected in the final round of qualifying and wrapped in a large bandage, he quickly found himself 3-0 down in the second set when he ordered a coffee in vain from the umpire, who told him that this was not part of the tournament’s task, and that he had to ask someone from his staff to fetch him one. It was finally a French supporter who gave him an espresso (with a bag of sugar) four games later, and in return collected a t-shirt that the Frenchman sent him from the bench.
It was also at this change of sides, at 5-2 to Shang, that Moutet asked for the intervention of the supervisor because he wanted a spectator to come out from the stands who had shouted “shut up!” » (“shut up”) that stuck in his throat. As with the coffee, he was unsuccessful.
The water from the back lane
With one set everywhere on another break (7-6, 2-6), Moutet was dropped at the start of the third set (0-3). In the fourth game, on 15A, he was involuntarily watered by the ranger placed just behind his own, who wet the ground too generously and this time allowed the point he had just lost to be replayed.
Under his guise as Calimero against the world, Moutet never gives up. He saved a ball from 4-0, broke on a superb point finished with a lob-topspin volley sequence and pulled back to 3-3. We had been playing since 3:07 and we were only forty minutes away from being Thursday!
Shang, for his part, denied superbly, with a well-taken forepass after a cushioned volley from the Frenchman, a break point, which would have earned Moutet to serve at 4-3. The Chinese saved a last one at 5-5. Ten minutes to midnight, and although Moutet’s right thigh seemed to be bursting everywhere, the decisive tie-break could begin.
Five match points saved in vain
The level of play took a dive, but not the level of excitement. Moutet saved five match points before at 11-10, a final forehand winner down the line from the Chinese put an end to this madness, after midnight. “Thank you Coco!, Thank you Coco!” » chanted by the night owls on the edge of the field was not enough to boost the morale of the vanquished.
In the second round, Shang Juncheng meets Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (28th) on Friday and there is a chance, despite the Spaniard’s equally strong character, that the match will be less exceptional than this crazy evening in Madrid.
Related Posts
when and on which channel are you going to watch the boxing match?
ABOUT. Contrary to Pablo Longoria, general manager Stéphane Tessier should leave the club
