"It's crazy what's happening," admits the little Frenchman, not yet come down from his cloud.
This is one of the sensations of the fortnight.
He did more than resist Hugo Gaston.
He simply won against a great on the circuit.
The Porte d'Auteuil has just experienced a (beaten) earthquake.
The young left-hander from Toulouse, 239th in the world ranking, managed to defeat the old Swiss lion Stan Wawrinka (17th).
A major, monumental, historical feat.
Seeing the youngster in the third round of a Grand Slam was already a quirk.
But to emerge victorious from such a fight in five sets (2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0), when we know the physical pressure exerted by the Swiss player, shows that the left-hander of Blagnac has resources.
Gaston is the symbol of an impatient and impetuous youth who want to invite themselves as soon as possible to the big table.
Like the American Sebastian Korda, 20 years old and 213th in the world, who invited himself to the round of 16 after eliminating his compatriot John Isner, seeded No. 21 in the second round.
A daring but profitable tactic
From the start, we were afraid for the 239th in the world at the end of the first set completed by the Swiss Stan Wawrinka in 29 minutes (6-2) but the young 20-year-old Toulouse quickly regained his spirits to equalize one round everywhere (6-3) by multiplying the amortizations and taking advantage of the direct faults of his opponent (30 during the first two rounds).
The rain was then invited in the third round (2-2) at a time when the Swiss player who won here in 2015 was stammering his tennis.
We feared that this cut would be beneficial to "Stan the Man" to put his tennis back in place but after more than 2 hours warm in the locker room Hugo Gaston continued to race in the lead to lead two heats to one (1-6 , 6-3, 6-3).
đđ«đ· YES!
Hugo Gaston wins this third round against Wawrinka and now leads two sets to one !!
The French are heading for the feat!
đ„ # RG20
đ„ïž Follow the match live: https://t.co/SMVPRCjkT8 pic.twitter.com/hC9KIWiJSo
- France tv sport (@francetvsport) October 2, 2020
Under the eyes of the president of the French Tennis Federation bundled up in his thick coat, Gaston did not hesitate to pound the lapel of his opponent, yet one of his strengths.
A daring but profitable tactic.
He will face in the next round the outgoing double finalist and recent winner of the US Open, the Austrian Dominic Thiem, who fell a little earlier in the day against the Norwegian Ruud by being very impressive (6-4, 6-3, 6 -1).