FRENCH lucky loser Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard might be 203cm tall as it is, but the towering young talent must have seemed well above that when her powered his way to victory over 20th seed Sebastian Korda thanks to a ridiculous 51 aces in their opening round match at Wimbledon.

Mpetshi Perricard lost to compatriot Maxime Janvier in the last round of qualifying in four tiebreakers, and he made it eight consecutive tiebreak sets when sitting at 2-2 against Korda overnight. In fact, the first break of the match only came in the deciding fifth set, with the French talent converting his fourth chance across the five sets, and the sole opportunity in set five.

In the deciding set alone, Mpetshi Perricard hit 16 winners – 10 of which were aces – to only three unforced errors, only dropping five points on serve, and commanding respect at the net with a 67 per cent success rate upon approach.

The 20-year-old made the most of his second chance to defeat Korda in three hours and 21 minutes, his first ATP Tour main draw win at a Grand Slam. He saved all 11 break points and had to compose himself after multiple rain delays.

A sliding doors moment for Mpetshi Perricard came in the third set tiebreak where, when 6-5 down he produced two aces and then drilled a winner to take the set. Though Korda would return the favour by being victorious in the fourth set tiebreaker, Mpetshi Perricard’s sublime serving proved too much, taking out the match 6-7 7-6 7-6 6-7 6-3.

Mpetshi Perricard described the win as “perfect for me”. When asked about how her felt facing 11 break points and his gameplan when stepping up to those moments, Mpetshi Perricard said he always backed his serve in.

“Try to not lose the point.” he joked of what he was thinking. “My zone, my gameplan, I will serve at the t or wide, and I will go to the net if I can and sometimes it works. It worked today. But I did not feel the pressure when I was like 30/40 or 0/40 on my serve. I was brave in that moment so very proud of myself to win those key moments in the match.”

AROUND THE COURTS

The biggest shock on day two from the gentlemen’s singles was sixth seed Russian Andrey Rublev going down to 122nd ranked Argentinian Francisco Comesana. In a match that lasted two hours and 58 minutes, the South American stuck to the task and finished strongly, serving out the match in a fourth set tiebreaker to win 6-4 5-7 6-2 7-6.

Other top seeds Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev both cruised through in straight sets, while seventh seeded Pole Hubert Hurkacz came from a set down against Radu Albot to win in four, in just under three hours. Ninth seed Alex de Minaur won the all-Australian battle against lucky loser James Duckworth in three tiebreakers, joining Adam Walton and Alexei Popyrin in the second round.

Fans got their money’s worth out on Court 18 with 14th seeded American Ben Shelton coming from two sets to one down against Italian Mattia Bellucci in five sets, 4-6 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4, while they also saw seeds Stefanos Tsitsipas and Taylor Fritz win through to the Round of 64 in straight sets.