We would have liked to see a Franco-French duel in the third round between Hugo Grenier and Benjamin Bonzi.
This will not be the case.
If the first (n° 141 ATP) did not exist (6-3, 6-1, 6-1) against the Chilean Cristian Garin (n°43), the second clearly missed his chance against the American Jenson Brooksby.
The French n°7 even admitted after the match that he had played with a broken finger, without however using it as an excuse.
The first two sets were hung and won by Brooksby, one of the great hopes of his country at only 21 years old (7-6, 7-5).
Bonzi could not do anything in the next one, also lost (6-3).
As the newspaper L'Equipe tells it, he was also forced to play with a broken finger, on the upper part of the ring finger of the hand.
“If I take a hit on it, I will cry”
“I did that to myself a week ago in the quarter-finals in Mallorca.
There was a let on serve, I wanted to catch the ball, there was a false bounce and she hit me in the finger.
But the fracture does not bother me when I play.
I'm just missing a bit of flex.
Why doesn't that bother me?
That's a very good question, you'll have to ask my hand!
I can squeeze the racquet.
But if I take a hit on it, I'm going to cry, I think... It's to avoid having a twisted finger all my life that I wear a splint after games.
During, I have a bandage.
»
The Nîmes has had a good first part of the season, notably with two titles (Cherbourg and Aix-en-Provence) in small tournaments.
Last week, he reached the semi-finals on the grass of Mallorca, where he was beaten by the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
A defeat which allowed him to gain nine places in the standings (n°47) and thus to enter the Top 50 for the first time in his career. Only Gaël Monfils (n°23) is now ahead of him among the French.
