Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard continued his indoor winning streak at the Rolex Paris Masters on Tuesday, battling to a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-3 first-round victory over Frances Tiafoe in front of his home crowd.
The 6′ 8″ Frenchman, who won the biggest title of his career at the ATP 500 event in Basel last week, was forced to serve to stay in the match twice in the second set, at 4-5 and 5-6, but hung on both times and eventually snuck out the win after just over two hours.
“It means a lot to win in front of the French people. It’s unbelievable,” he said. “It was an amazing match for me. I did some good things—some bad things sometimes, but yeah it happens! The most important part is I have the win, and now I have to be focused for the next match. I hope to have the same crowd cheering for me.”
And with his win over the world No. 17, the 21-year-old Mpetshi Perricard is now 5-1 in his career against Top 20 players. All of those matches have come this year, and the only loss came to the only Top 10 player he’s faced, Carlos Alcaraz, in Beijing a few weeks ago.
MPETSHI PERRICARD VS TOP 20 PLAYERS (5-1):
d. No. 19 Bublik in ’24 Lyon SFs, 6-4, 7-5
d. No. 14 Shelton in ’24 Queen’s Club 1st Rd, 6-3, 7-6
l. to No. 3 Alcaraz in ’24 Beijing 1st Rd, 6-4, 6-4
d. No. 19 Auger-Aliassime in ’24 Basel 2nd Rd, 6-1, 7-6
d. No. 14 Rune in ’24 Basel SFs, 7-6, 6-4
d. No. 17 Tiafoe in ’24 Paris 1st Rd, 6-7 7-6 6-3
