A late opponent and a big stage
Moise Kouame is 17, and on Tuesday he walked onto the Centre Court of a Masters 1000 in his home country. It ended quickly. Nuno Borges of Portugal, ranked 49th, beat him 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of the Rolex Paris Masters, finishing the job with a love game after roughly an hour of play.
The draw had shifted late. Kouame was due to face Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who withdrew, and Borges stepped into the slot. The change swapped his opponent but kept the stage.
Borges broke first, at 2-3 in the opening set, and kept control by dictating the rallies from the baseline. Kouame saved three break points to avoid a second break in that set, but a forehand passing shot let Borges take his serve again to close it out.
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The second set got away
The Frenchman started the second set with a break against him, though he did save two break points in that opening game before a long rally, a double fault and a ball into the net gave it up. Borges ran off a long streak of games, a stretch that included a bad drop shot and another double fault from Kouame.
There were flashes. Kouame served six aces and, at 1-5, held to love and asked the crowd for its support. He earned his first two break points of the set at 0-5, only for Borges to shut them down.
Borges now plays Russian Karen Kachanov in the next round, with Kouame left to take lessons from the experience.
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