In Bercy late at night,
There are days like this where our old bond with sport never disappoints, frankly.
Ten hours of bumping into endless matches, doubles moved to the Central to satisfy a crowd deprived of the expected Monfils-Djokovic, the air conditioning of Bercy to make a mammoth buried in Permafrost catch cold, all this in the hope of sharing a moment of madness behind Hugo Gaston, the last darling of French tennis who had already exploded the sutures of our fragile little heart during the Roland of confinement.
It is an understatement to say that we were served, and with us 12,652 French supporters just as it takes to help Alcaraz to blow the box all alone at 5-0 for him in the second set (6-4, 7 -5 in the end).
20 points won out of 21 to finish
A short circuit in the fuse cabinet as we have rarely seen with our eyes (a little tired at one in the morning).
A point won on the last 21 points played, and a kid on the verge of tears at the last change of sides, in an atmosphere I tell you not.
The 18-year-old Spaniard may well roll his muscles as under the leather of a bull's back, armed with an animal power that will make him a very great player in the years to come, he unstuck like a child against Hugo the good tips, who still laughs about it.
Unbelivable.
Hugo Gaston comes back from 0-5 down in the second set, beats Carlos Alcaraz 6-4, 7-5 to reach the QFs.
Gaston lost 6 of 34 points after being 0-5 down and just one of the last… 21.
Tough to watch Alcaraz colapse like that, but what a comeback.
Crowd helped.
pic.twitter.com/37R1eamTsK
- José Morgado (@josemorgado) November 4, 2021
“Frankly, I had already prepared my outfit for the third set, but I heard a few“ remoradas ”from the stands and I said to myself why not.
It is certain that there is a rather surprising scenario, one will say.
I relaxed to 5-0.
From that moment on, he started to relax too.
He started making a lot of mistakes, because I foiled him with high balls, low balls, fast balls, fast steps.
He started to get confused a little, to get excited maybe, I don't know… ”
"He started to get confused a bit"
Oh yes, you know, my pig. The way the young Toulouse man suddenly reconnected his brain after having taken three-four holiday games in Punta Cana, like a Santoro from the great era facing Safin, what a panard, even if Alcaraz gave us a bit of hardly when he began to insult mothers in Castilian, his desperate gaze towards Juan Carlos Ferrero (his coach), while he was sending praline upon praline in the Seine. Marc Barbier, who has been training Gaston since he no longer put on bibs, had warned his foal:
“I thought this scenario could happen in the last heat. Finally little by little, taking one game, then two, he believed in it. Alcaraz got a little panicked, we must not forget that he is only 18 years old, that's what I told Hugo before the match. He is a great player, but he is 18 years old and has the weaknesses of a young man of his age ”.
A certain class too, since the disappointment of the moment did not prevent Alcaraz from warmly congratulating his opponent in the locker room and wishing him good luck for the future. At the same time, the whole clan of the now 67th player in the world is congratulating themselves, around the mother, the girlfriend, the big brother, and the friends of Blagnac, louder than a Russian regiment on leave. We can not help but stay in the passage Isabelle Inchauspé, the mental trainer of Gaston, on the air of "good in fact you serve him for nothing, it is already a monster in the head". She smiles with us.
"The hole in the second set?"
He has a moment of relaxation, more or less conscious, but he knows how to manage them, to let them pass, until he feels he can start again, that is his great strength ”.
Sometimes very demanding of regular debriefings during tournaments, Gaston has had almost nothing to clarify with her since arriving in Paris, in qualifying.
A close relationship with the public
“He doesn't need anything, he knows how to do it. He's in it, he's happy to play, there is much less input to make to him in this tournament than in others where you have to fight a little more. The only advice I gave him before this game? Take advantage of the moment, because we knew the audience would be there. He is a boy who is very anchored, he does not get excited, he does not necessarily come to seek the public, even if he has helped them today. Above all, he comes to seek sensations, to play tennis well ”.
We had discovered his nymphomania of cushioning at Roland Garros against Wawrinka and Thiem, we feasted on his phenomenal ground coverage and his peshmerga defense against the young Spanish prodigy.
One point that raised our hair more than others?
Four or five smashes from Alcaraz delivered by the Gaston duracell battery, until the collective orgasm on the last smash missed by the Iberian, even before his final collapse.
Hu-GOD MODE 🤯🤯 @ HugoGaston7 #RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/wZkUNs8wHe
- Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 4, 2021
"A fun game to watch", according to Medvedev
Medvedev, the Frenchman's opponent this Friday in the quarter-finals, enjoyed the show as much as we did: “I started watching the match before coming to see you at a press conference, we were at 4-4, Hugo has a good level, fun to watch ”. A little less to play, we understood, even if we will not make the mistake of putting this good Daniil, world number 2 in his state, in the same basket as Alcaraz, still a baby at this level.
Besides, the Russian, annoyed for a while on his side by Korda before taking out the fly swatter, was no more chickweed than that at the idea of finding Gaston in quarters: "I think that for Hugo it is not going to go well. not be easy because they will finish late, we will see how it is after a few hours against me ”We will be 12,000 to see also, the lips all excited by the show of the day before.
Take out the tricolor flags and your most beautiful Marseillaise, meet at 7:30 p.m.
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