Corentin Moutet eliminated in the first round in Rome

Fourth of the five Frenchmen of the day to compete in the first round of the Masters 1000 in Rome, Corentin Moutet suffered the same fate as Adrian Mannarino, Ugo Humbert and Jeremy Chardy: in a match with a preposterous scenario, he lost 6-0, 6-7 (8), 6-2, against the Hungarian qualifier Fabian Marozsan (135th in the world).

Still handicapped by the consequences of his operation on his right wrist, suffered on January 31, Moutet (67th) still only hits his backhand with one hand. Difficult, in these conditions, to play at his best level. But he retains (sometimes) his qualities as a fighter. Which may explain the roller coaster scenario of the game.

Completely off the plate, the Frenchman quickly found himself trailing 6-0, 2-0. In eight games, he had only scored six points… But he hung on, came back to 2 everywhere, saved a break point at 3-4, before winning the tie-break. Where he discarded four match points by taking advantage of his opponent’s feverishness on three of them.

But the improvement did not last: broken in the third game of the last set, Moutet gave up his serve a second time, at 2-4. The miracle only lasted one set.