Giovanni Mpeshi Perricard was eliminated in the knockout stages of the Stuttgart Stuttgart tournament by Felix Auger-Aliassime, who will now face the very young German Justin Engel.
Five French people qualified for the knockout stages of the ATP 250 on Stuttgart lawn. But there are already four to be eliminated. While waiting for Corentin Moutet’s match against Alexander Zverev, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Arthur Rinderknech, Quentin Halys and Giovanni Mpeshi Perricard all took the door. The tricolor giant, 36th in the world, was opposed this Thursday at Felix Auger-Aliassime, 29th, irregular this year but finalist of the tournament in 2019 and 2021.
And the Canadian won on the score of 6-4, 6-4 in 1h17 against Lyonnais, which allows him to now lead 2-1 in the confrontations. Author of 26 Aces in his first round against Roman Safiullin, the Lyonnais was satisfied with 8 this time, and he had to defend four break balls. The first arrived at 3-3 in the first set, and Auger-Aliassime managed to convert it. The Canadian then saved three Débreak balls and pocketed the set at 5-4 on a white game.
In the second, Mpeshi Perricard managed to return from 0-2 to 2-2, but hardly he had equalized that he again gave up his putting into play and his opponent then lost only one point on his service until the end of the set, won once again at 5-4 on a white game. The Frenchman therefore stops there, and will now take the way to London, to compete for the Queen’s next week.
Only Nadal did better than Gel …
As for Auger-Aliassime, he will face in the quarterfinals on Friday Justin Engel on Friday. Invited by the organizers, the young German of 17 years and 8 months, 281st in the world, created the sensation by leaving the 35th Alex Michelsen, a fall of Gaël Monfils in the previous round, on the score of 6-4, 6-4 in 1h17. The native of Nuremberg, author of 8 Aces, did not have the slightest break ball to defend, and took the service of the American at 1-1 in each set.
He thus became the second youngest player after 1990 to have won at least one match in the three areas (hard, earth, lawn). Winner of his first match on the ATP circuit in Almaty on DUR last October, he also won one on the land of Hamburg in mid-May, before this victory on lawn at Stuttgart. Only Rafael Nadal (which is also the idol of Engel) did better, since he was 17 years and 2 months when he won his third victory on a third area (land in Mallorca in April 2002, Grass in Wimbledon in June 2003, hard at the US Open in August 2003). The top 5 of this classification of precocity is completed by Alexander Zverev, Lleyton Hewitt and Carlos Alcaraz, all winners of their third match on a third area at 18 and 1 month. Justin Engel, a future crack?
