Eight losses, then a win over Baez
Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard finally has a victory to point to. The 23-year-old Frenchman beat Sebastian Baez 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the first round of qualifying at the Basel 500 on Saturday, ending a drought that had lasted since June.
His last win at tour level came on June 14, in the second round of qualifying at Queen’s Club. Eight straight defeats followed. Baez sits roughly a hundred places above him in the rankings, which makes the result more than a routine qualifying win.
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Serving big, a few wobbles
The match swung back and forth. Mpetshi Perricard took the opening set after breaking in the Argentine’s first service game, then let the second slip away even though he had control of it. He broke for 3-2 in the decider and promptly dropped serve twice in a row, but the big serve got him through in the end.
The numbers explain why. He hit 22 aces to Baez’s two and finished with 36 winners against 14, though his 42 unforced errors were double the Argentine’s 21. It was a scrappy afternoon that still counted as a win.
The result arrives a week after the Lyon native spoke openly in L’Equipe about the burn-out he went through this year. A first win in four months will not erase that, but it gives him something to build on in Basel qualifying.
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