Twenty aces and a set in hand
Twenty aces. Forty-five winners. A first set in the bag. Titouan Droguet still went out of the Rolex Paris Masters in the first round on Monday night, beaten 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 by Slovakia’s Alex Molcan.
Droguet, ranked 79th and in the main draw on a wild card, was making his debut at the Paris Masters 1000. He lost to a qualifier ranked just one place below him. On Court 1, in front of a loud crowd, he took the opener after turning the game around from 5-4, when Molcan led 40-15 on serve.
no renewal
Free for 2 weeks.
Forty-one unforced errors
Then it frayed. Molcan leveled and took control of the decider. Droguet fought: two break-back chances while the Slovak served for the match, and a match point saved with a fine backhand down the line. It did not quite come off.
The number that hurts is 41 unforced errors over the match. With that serve, the win was there for the taking.
Molcan now waits for the winner of Benjamin Bonzi, a qualifier ranked 99th, against American Taylor Fritz, the 13th-ranked player in the world.
A rough day for the French wild cards
Droguet was not the only one to fall. Earlier in the day Kyrian Jacquet, also a wild card, lost to Czech Tomas Machac, who will meet Arthur Fils next. Valentin Van Assche is so far the only Frenchman through to round two.
Discover the rest of our Tennis news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply