Moïse Kouamé’s French Open dream ends in round three
The 17-year-old wild card saved four match points before falling to Alejandro Tabilo
Moïse Kouamé’s remarkable debut at Roland-Garros came to an end on Saturday. The 17-year-old French wild card lost to Alejandro Tabilo 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (9) on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, bowing out in the third round after saving four match points in a tight deciding tiebreak.
A fighter until the final point
Kouamé took the opening set and gave the Parisian crowd plenty to shout about. He hit whipped forehands down the line, attacked the net with sharp volleys and chased down balls that had no business being retrieved. When he broke to level at 4-4 in the fourth set, the crowd rose to their feet.
Tabilo steadied himself in the second and third sets, winning both to take control. In the fourth, Kouamé pushed the Chilean into a tiebreak and saved four match points before a misfired shot at the net ended his resistance. The breaker finished 11-9. Kouamé walked around the net and embraced Tabilo before waving goodbye to the fans who had backed him throughout the fortnight.
Fitness and freshness played a role
The physical gap between the two players told its own story. Tabilo had spent just under two hours on court across his first two matches, benefiting from a walkover in the second round when his opponent withdrew through injury. Kouamé, by contrast, had logged more than eight hours on court after a four-set opener against Marin Cilic and a five-hour battle against Adolfo Daniel Vallejo in round two.
The numbers reflected that difference. Tabilo won 76% of his first-serve points to Kouamé’s 69%. He also converted five of 17 break-point chances, compared to four of 10 for the teenager. Kouamé finished with 11 double faults to Tabilo’s three, a costly gap as the match wore on.
No French men left in the draw
Kouamé was the last French player standing in the men’s singles. His exit, combined with Quentin Halys’ third-round loss to Alexander Zverev on Friday, means no French man will compete in the second week of Roland-Garros for the second straight year.
Tabilo, ranked 36th, advances to the fourth round of a grand slam for the first time in his career. He will face the winner of the match between fourth seed Félix Auger-Aliassime and 31st seed Brandon Nakashima.
For Kouamé, the tournament is over, but the run he put together on his grand slam debut suggested he will be back at Roland-Garros for years to come.
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