The advantage, when you don't expect much, is that you aren't disappointed.
Only four French players (out of 18 at the start) managed to overcome the pitfall of the first round.
And again, fortunately there was a Franco-French poster!
Never in twenty years have the Blues been so scattered like a puzzle from the start of the competition.
And no one, this time, will be able to justify it by public pressure ...
In an edition already weighed down by the context, nothing to warm the atmosphere.
Benoît Paire, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Benjamin Bonzi and Hugo Gaston are the survivors of a shipwreck that has affected all generations.
In autumn, the day goes down early and the generation of "Musketeers" has never seemed so close to dusk.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is in early retirement.
Gilles Simon and Richard Gasquet (whose rankings no longer allow them to avoid entry leaders) could not perform miracles against Shapovalov respectively (6-2, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 ) and Bautista-Agut (7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 6-1), seeds n ° 9 and 10.
Benoît Paire, unexpected leader
The case of Gaël Monfils, who lives the Indian summer of his career (world n ° 9), is a little different.
The containment and shutdown of the circuit completely shattered the momentum at the start of the season.
As a result, this is the first time since 2005 that no member of the quartet has won a single match on a court at Porte d'Auteuil!
Behind, Ugo Humbert, 22, has just discovered his love for the land and remained on a quarter-final in Hamburg.
But the Messin, world No. 38, got his feet in the dish in front of the lucky Australian loser Polmans (6-2, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3).
“There is not everything to throw away, there are positive points.
I felt I was progressing.
With the conditions and this style of player, it opened my eyes to what I had to work on, the Lorrainer is satisfied.
This is really the positive point.
"
Among the seven French guests, Hugo Gaston, who will play against Nishioka, is the only one who has made his starting jackpot grow (60,000 euros).
Ironically, it is on Benoît Paire, opposed to Guillermo Coria's little brother (finalist in 2004), that most of the blue-white-red hopes now rest.
For a month and its string of positive-negative controls for Covid-19, the Avignon population had nothing of a sure value ...
