The players dominated the lawn of Wimbledon this Monday, July 3. France’s Caroline Garcia and Diane Parry qualified for the second round. However, Corentin Moutet, the only qualified male representative for the time being, won his place by beating another Frenchman, Richard Gasquet. After the flop of Roland-Garros, where no player had reached the third round, French tennis has little more reason to smile for the time being on the London lawn.
His best chance, Caroline Garcia, seeded No. 5, came in two sets, but without convincing, while on the men’s side, despite the good resistance of Laurent Lokoli in four sets against world No. 4, Casper Ruud, disappointment dominates. At the end of the day, however, Quentin Halys gave some hope, even if the night interrupted him as he led two sets to zero against the Briton (30th) Dan Evans.
First in line from the opening of the tournament, Diane Parry delivered a rather disjointed match against the Briton Harriet Dart (135th) and holder of a wild card, 6-7 (7-4), 6-0, 6-4 . The Frenchwoman let slip a first set where she quickly led 3-0 service to follow, then served to win the set at 5-4.
Against the American Katie Volynets, she was initially solid on her commitment to break at the best moment, at 5-4 for her, and pocket the first set. She then had a big air hole, finding herself trailing 3-0, opposing service to follow, but she had regained the upper hand (4-3) when the court was covered, before concluding 6-4, 6 -3 after the locker room. In the second round, she will face Canadian Leylah Fernandez (95th), while Parry will challenge the No. 30 seed, Croatian Petra Martic.
The other French qualification of the day, that of Corentin Moutet, is only half satisfaction, since it is done at the expense of another Frenchman, Richard Gasquet. If he was not necessarily the favorite against the 51st player in the world and twice semi-finalist (2007, 2015), Moutet (71st) made more winning shots and fewer unforced errors than his opponent, managing to rectify situations delicate, when he trailed 5-3 in the second set or 4-1 in the third to win 6-3, 7-5, 7-5.
The losses of the first day are already heavy on the side of the French. The spectators of court n° 2 could admire the combativeness of Laurent Lokoli, the qualifier (199th) who, after being down 5-0 and 0-15 on his serve in the first set, did more than defend himself against the n °4 ATP, Casper Ruud.
For his part, faced with a fairly strong first round, in the person of the Russian Aslan Karatsev (50th), Lucas van Assche (75th) does not have to be ashamed of his defeat in four sets 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. In the evening, some glimmers of hope appeared with a very solid performance from Quentin Halys, dominating against Evans. However, it will be hoped that the night will not cut the good momentum that allowed him to lead 6-2, 6-3 against the No. 27 seed.
Harold Mayot had also taken the lead in his first round match before returning to the hotel, but as he was leading 6-3, 5-3 against Benjamin Bonzi, there will be a Frenchman in addition to the next one anyway. round. Grégoire Barrère, who was to face the South African Lloyd Harris, will not play until Tuesday.