While 17 players were involved in qualifying for the Australian Open, nine will ultimately play in the second round, or almost one in two players. On Tuesday, Jules Marie, Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Terence Atmane qualified for the second round of qualifying, unlike Benoît Paire, Ugo Blanchet and Clément Tabur.
This night, eleven Blues were entered, still in the first round of qualifying for the first Grand Slam of the season. Some were particularly strong, like Harold Mayot, winner here among the juniors, or Laurent Lokoli, 277th and qualified at the last minute for the qualifications after having made the bet to join Melbourne without being guaranteed to compete in the qualifications.
This Wednesday, fate did not work in his favor. Yet in front of the score, the 29-year-old French suffered from “generalized cramps” and was finally forced to give up in the final round (4-6, 6-4, 3-2 AB) after winning the first .
The two French people, 99th and 159th, are undoubtedly two of the biggest French chances in these qualifications. The first, in great lack of consistency for several months, mastered his first round well after his third at the Nouméa challenger. First led 5-3 by the Chinese Yunchaokete Bu, 171st ATP, Hugo Gaston woke up in the second part of the match with 10 consecutive games won! The Frenchman finally won 7-5, 6-0.
In the second rotation, Harold Mayot, winner of the Junior Australian Open in 2020, also mastered his entry well against the Argentinian Andrea Collarini, 227th. The 21-year-old Messin won in straight sets, 7-6(5), 6-3.
The Lyonnais Kyrian Jacquet, 205th in the world, was opposed to Enzo Couacaud, 187th and eliminated in the second round in 2023 by Novak Djokovic, in the second derby of the first round after the shock, which did not really keep its promises, opposing Jules Marie to Benoît Paire 7-6(6), 6-4. It was once again the lowest ranked player who took the scalp of his opponent on Wednesday (6-3, 2-6, 6-2). Another Lyonnais, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, also qualified for the second round of these qualifications. The young tricolor overthrew the Chilean and clay court specialist Tomas Barrios Vera (95th) in two sets: 6-3, 7-6(9).
Hugo Grenier, although an outsider against the very promising young Estonian Mark Lajal, used his experience perfectly to win the second part of the day in Melbourne, 6-4, 6-2. For their part, Titouan Droguet, Calvin Hemery, Antoine Escoffier and Geoffrey Blancaneaux each lost in two sets for their entry into the running.
Another surprise of the night, the very young Jakub Mensik, a very young hope of Czech tennis (18 years old, 144th in the world), brilliantly won against the American Brandon Nakashima, who has been losing his rhythm for many months and is currently 128th. world (6-4, 7-6{4]).
