Hugo Gaston’s new Parisian odyssey never ends: the young Frenchman waltzed the young Spanish nugget Carlos Alcaraz to invite himself to the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 de Bercy in a highly charged atmosphere on Thursday, November 4. A little more than a year after his journey to the round of 16 at Roland Garros, here is the Toulouse left-hander, winner 6-4, 7-5, for the first time at this stage of the Masters 1000 competition. from Friday will challenge the world n ° 2 and recent winner of the US Open Daniil Medvedev.
“I’m obviously a little tired, but I play tennis to play matches like that, in front of a full stadium, appreciates Gaston. Is that “kiff” to be here. “ You should have seen Bercy, at half past midnight, still lavishly stocked, start singing the Marseillaise at the top of his lungs. It is because Gaston (21 years old) had just given him a new twist of which he has the secret.
Still led 5-0 in the second set a few tens of minutes earlier, and two points from losing him, the future resident of the top 70, arrived 103e world in Paris, has just aligned six consecutive games – and made him dizzy to lose his calm in the usual so posed Alcaraz – and is about to serve for the win of the match. He did so without trembling, even concluding on an ace. “I’ll be frank, I had already prepared my outfit for the third set”, smiled Hugo Gaston. “But I heard a few ‘remoradas’ and I said to myself: “why not ?” “
Gaël Monfils package against Djokovic
For his part, Gaël Monfils, 22e in the ATP ranking, forfeited Thursday before his round of 16 against Novak Djokovic scheduled for the afternoon at the Masters 1000 in Paris due to a “Muscle injury” adductors, he announced.
“We had detected a muscle lesion [mercredi soir], we did an ultrasound again a few hours ago, and we made the decision with the medical profession and my team to withdraw from the tournament ”, explained the number one French, who was injured during his match of the second round against Adrian Mannarino, the day before.
The 35-year-old Parisian did not hide at a press conference, before the tournament, that he arrived in poor shape: on three occasions he had repeated that he did not feel “Not at best” and explained that he felt “A lot of physical and mental fatigue”.
This package is synonymous with the end of the season for Monfils, since it was not selected by the captain of the France team, Sébastien Grosjean, for the final phase of the Davis Cup (November 25-December 5). Novak Djokovic will face Briton Cameron Norrie (13e) or the American Taylor Fritz (26e) for a place in the last square of the Paris tournament.
