The first round in Winston-Salem had rather smiled on the French with the victories of Arthur Cazaux, Alexandre Müller and Corentin Moutet. The second gave birth to a small massacre in the tricolor clan. Of the six players involved, only Arthur Rinderknech validated his ticket for the round of 16, by eliminating the Australian Christopher O’Connell in two sets (6-3, 6-4). He will face the Belgian David Goffin this Wednesday.
For the others, Tuesday was a very difficult day. Cazaux was defeated by the Australian Rinky Hijikata despite winning the first set (4-6, 6-3, 7-6 [4]) and even though he had shown very good form against Botic van de Zandschulp in the previous round. Adrian Mannarino and Alexandre Müller also lost at the end of tight matches, respectively against Aleksandar Vukic (7-6 [5]2-6, 6-1) and Pavel Kotov (6-4, 5-7, 6-2).
Corentin Moutet and Hugo Gaston never saw the light of day
For his part, Corentin Moutet was non-existent against the Russian Roman Safiullin (defeat 6-1, 7-5), very early Wednesday morning. An opponent who had nevertheless served him well until now since he led 2-1 in direct confrontations, like their clash in the first round of the Masters 1000 in Rome this year where the Frenchman won (3-6, 7-6 [5]6-2).
Hugo Gaston suffered the same fate, swept away (6-1, 6-4) by the American Christopher Eubanks who is currently ranked 112th in the ATP.
2024-08-21 19:07:10