French Open: 3: 6 and 1: 5! Tennys Sandgren unpacks the Houdini
In qualifying for the French Open, Tennys Sandgren defeated top seed Thiago Monteiro 3-6, 7-6 (5) and 7-6 (8) in over three hours. At times the American had more than his back against the wall against the Brazilian.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: May 17, 2022, 08:13 pm
It looked like a relaxed working day for Thiago Monteiro. The Brazilian was aiming for qualification for his 16th Grand Slam main draw at the Bois de Boulogne, but had unfortunately missed a fixed place in this by exactly one place in the world rankings. And now had to start qualifying for the second major event of the year on Tuesday.
As already mentioned, for a long time it looked like the 27-year-old would have a relaxed gallop. Set one with 6: 3 in the pocket drew the world number 100. even picked up the pace a bit and got the first match point when the score was 5:1. The promotion to the second qualifying round at this point: just a formality. It didn't change much at first that opponent Tennys Sandgren fended off the first match point and a little later got at least one break back.
Drama in sets two and three
What few people thought at the time: The American still had a lot planned for this Tuesday afternoon. Very much. Sandgren should also equalize the second break a few moments later and send the second set into a tie-break with a sovereign service performance - and ultimately win it 7: 5.
The drama shouldn't end there, quite the opposite. While the two servers didn't show any weaknesses in the decisive set for long stretches, the tie-break that followed developed into a real crime thriller. 4:0, Monteiro said after the first four points played, 6:3 led the Brazilian after nine. And Tenny's Sandgren? He had come to come back. The 30-year-old also fended off two to four match balls from his opponent - and finally left the pitch after more than three hours with 10:8 in the short decision of the third set as the winner.