BEVERLY HILLS, October 2, (THEWILL) – An upset is always around the corner in every Grand Slam and tennis fans have come to expect one or two every time players take to the court to slug it out. But, in terms of scale, this was seismic.
The honour goes to Frenchman Hugo Gaston. The wild card entry into this year’s French Open is ranked 239th on the men’s table. He entered the competition without a tour-level win to his name but with today’s victory, he is now well into the fourth round of the Slam. He achieved this enviable passage with a 2-6 6-3 6-3 4-6 6-0 victory over former champion Stanislas Wawrinka.
THEWILL considers this all the more shocking because along with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Wawrinka was tipped as one of the potential challengers for the French Open title this year. But in the face of the brilliant defence mounted by Gaston, the Swiss was simply unable to rise to the occasion. As the game wore on, Gaston looked more and more stunned by his own achievement, especially that last set which he won six love.
The prize money he took home for this victory and entry into the fourth round (£170,000), is more money than everything he had ever earned before put together. The victory made him the lowest-ranked male tennis player to ever reach the fourth round at Roland Garros for 18 years.
Gaston found himself looking for words to describe the accomplishment in the post-match interview. “It’s difficult to explain,” the overwhelmed Frenchman said, “It’s fantastic. It was a great match. I’m very happy today. Before, I was always watching this on TV. Today, I can play on these courts, so it’s amazing for me.”
His next game is against the third-seeded Dominic Theim.
Theim, the US Open Champion, rated his own performance and victory against Casper Ruud as one of his best performances of the season. The Austrian who is yet to drop a set in this competition had to recover from a slow start to outclass Ruud 6-4 6-3 6-1. It was enough to qualify him for a fifth consecutive round-of-16 appearance.
In other matches that were played today, the American Sebastian Korda defeated Pedro Martinez of Spain in straight sets, 6-4 6-3 6-1. Sebastian is the son of former grand slam champion Petr Korda. He will next play against the man he considers his childhood idol, the King of Clay himself, Rafael Nadal.
Nadal had a smooth game to mark his progress in the competition. He breezed past Italian Stefano Travaglia 6-1 6-4 6-0. He would fancy his chances against the son of a former champion as this has been his most favourite surface and only the very best of the best give him any hiccups here.
