Doha (AFP)
Corentin Moutet bowed heavily for his first final on the ATP circuit, Saturday in Doha against the Russian Andrey Rublev, in two sets 6-2, 7-6 (3) and an hour and a half of play.
The beautiful week of the young French, 20 years old and 81st in the world, came to an abrupt end. Fallen in Doha of the Canadian Milos Raonic, of the Spanish Fernando Verdasco then in the semi-final of the Swiss Stan Wawrinka in three sets and two hours of play, he did not find the necessary resources against the quarter finalist of the last US Open .
"It was an incredible week for me. I will remember it all my life," said the Frenchman after the final. "But my opponent was too strong today, I still have to progress."
Racket thrown, warning from the referee, long disillusioned face, Moutet almost never existed in this final, conceding the break from the start of the match. Too brittle in his exchanges, he won just over half of his points on his first service (54%).
Opposite, his opponent was unruffled for the first 50 minutes, where he even led 4-1 in the second run. But the French hung on, returning to the height of the only game where he had opportunities to take the service of his opponent.
He then held his strike to reach the tie-break. But as at each start of the set, he was surprised by the good start of the Russian, who quickly took the lead 4-0, then 6-1.
Rublev, who had eliminated another Frenchman, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, in the competition won his third tournament, after that of Umag in Croatia on clay in 2017 and that of Moscow on hard in 2019.
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