Paris (AFP)

Two days and 6:05 of combat: the French Corentin Moutet lost 0-6, 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (7/3), 2-6, 18-16 against the Italian Lorenzo Giustino, 157th in the world and from qualifying, Monday during the first round of Roland Garros, after a Homeric match.

This is the second longest match in the history of the Parisian tournament in the Open era, after the one between Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clément in 2004 and which lasted 6:33!

The 29-year-old Neapolitan had never won a single match on the main circuit, let alone in the Grand Slam.

He played there his first meeting in straight sets.

This victory, "it means a lot to me, I have improved over the past two years. I believe in myself, I believe that I can do better than what I did before," said Giustino on Monday evening at a press conference.

He then joked that it was only on Sunday night, seeing the match between Jurij Rodionov and Jérémy Chardy, finished at 10-8 in the 5th set, that he realized there was no tie-break in the last round at Roland-Garros.

"I saw my coach, I said: + You know I want to go up to 12-10 in the fifth +. And look what happened! It's really funny".

- "What's his magic potion?" -

The match between the two men was interrupted Sunday evening due to rain and did not resume until mid-afternoon on Monday.

Moutet had easily won the first set, but Giustino managed to pick up again to lead to this epic 5th set which alone will have lasted more than 3 hours.

He finally won on his third match point against the Frenchman who will have served three times to win the game.

"No, but the guy, what's his magic potion, no kidding!" Exclaimed Moutet during the last set, visibly annoyed to see the Italian always come back to the score.

"The match was very long (...) I feel drained (...) Physically already, it is sure that tonight I will feel it (...) And in the head, it is sure that it hurts more, because I spent a lot of time on the pitch, "said the Frenchman in a post-match press conference.

But "if it had taken another hour to play to win, I would gladly have played another hour," he added.

Giustino, meanwhile, said he was "in great shape" after the match.

“Tomorrow, I'm going for a little jog, because I'm in too good shape!” The Italian joked.

In the next round, the Italian will face the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman, 14th in the world and recent striker of Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals in Rome.

© 2020 AFP