Last year, Stefanos Tsitsipas arrived in Marseille with doubts in his mind. After his semi-final at the Australian Open, the Greek had a hard time coming down, losing in the second round in Sofia and then in the first in Rotterdam. Tsitsipas admitted yesterday that he had almost cancelled his visit to Marseille, but at the last minute he finally took his flight. He had a perfect week, winning the tournament without losing a set.
He returns this year with a solid Top 10 status. The Athens native will face Sweden's Mikael Ymer, who beat Richard Gasquet in the first round. His main achievements have been on the Challenger circuit. But the young Swede, born in 1998 like Tsitsipas, is hoping to take his game to the next level. He will face a real challenge against Tsitsipas.
Another headliner in the running on Wednesday is Felix Auger-Aliassime (F2A). The Canadian, seeded No. 7, will try to win his first match at the Palais des Sports against Italian Stefano Travaglia. Born on 8 August, like a certain Roger Federer but in 2000 (the year of the Swiss' first final in Marseille!), F2A played in the tournament in 2018, after being awarded a wild card. He lost the first round. But at the time, the Montreal native was ranked 167th. Today he is ranked 18th, close to his best ranking. Auger-Aliassime was a finalist last Sunday in Rotterdam against Gaël Monfils and is expected to go further this time.
Paire sees far ahead
Pierre-Hugues Herbert (P2H), the first Frenchman to compete on Wednesday, is up against Mikhail Kukushkin. The Alsatian is playing in the tournament for the third time in his career. He has never made it past the second round before. The draw was not kind to P2H, who will face the finalist of the last edition, Mikhail Kukushkin. Kukushkin surprised everyone by saying at the end of the tournament that he had had a dream week. Since then, with the exception of a round of 16 victory at Wimbledon, the Kazakh has not really got back on track. Herbert, who is coming off a quarter-final in Montpellier, has everything to play for.
While the two youngsters Harold Mayot and Arthur Cazaux are expected to play doubles against Nicolas Mahut and Vasek Pospisil, Benoit Paire will have to confirm his good form against Kazakh Alexander Bublik to close out this "super Wednesday". The Avignon native was very effective in the first round and clearly stated his ambitions: "I'm not going to be the only one to win. I am here to win ". There's more to it than that!
