Grégoire Barrère, 209th in the world, savors it.
Carried by the public of court 14, the 28-year-old Ile-de-France player overthrew the Japanese Taro Daniel (105th) 3-6, 6-2, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 and savored his qualification.
Logically.
In five participations, he had so far only reached the second round once, in 2019, when he lost to Russian Aslan Karatsev.
But most of his weekend is almost elsewhere for this PSG fan.
“
I am very happy and relieved that Kylian announced his decision yesterday,
he confided with a smile.
For my match today, I was calm.
I'm in a bit of a fight with my physical preparation which is for Real.
I leave the Champions League final to him.
We have Kylian.
I told him: I could have celebrated Kylian at the end of the match to finish him off, he would have been disgusted.
I did not dare
”.
To discover
Roland Garros men's singles
Roland Garros single ladies
He knew how to ignite the Parisian public who knows that the French victories will not be legion this year...
“Inevitably, when the public chants your name, when they sing the Marseillaise, you get chills.
You still have to manage to refocus well and play.
It gives extra energy.
For the opponent it is also not easy.
In important moments, it helps you to commit more, to get the points, and not necessarily to hold back and wait for the fault.
That's what the public helped me too, to seek feedback on second aggressive enough to destabilize it.
»
Grégoire Barrère will try in the next round to avenge his compatriot Quentin Halys, dominated by the giant Isner.
Barrère has never reached the 2nd round in the other three Grand Slam tournaments: at Wimbledon in 2019, at the US Open in 2019 and 2020, at the Australian Open in 2020.
