Denis Shapovalov’s growing fan club were left disappointed as his French Open debut was cut short by Germany’s Maximilian Marterer in the second round on Thursday.
The Canadian 19-year-old’s eye-catching groundstrokes have rocketed him up the rankings in the past 12 months and he arrived to contest only his fourth grand slam seeded 24.
Despite taking the first set against fellow left-hander Marterer, three years his senior, he lost an absorbing scrap on the Court 1 bullring 5-7 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 6-4.
Shapovalov’s game first began to fray in the middle of the second set when a double-fault at 3-3 gave Marterer the break.
The 70th-ranked German, also playing in the main draw for the first time, faltered when serving for second set at 5-4 but he made no mistake in the tiebreak, levelling the match when Shapovalov netted a forehand.
Shapovalov struggled to contain the errors in the third set and another double-fault when serving at 5-6 30-30 gave Marterer the chance to move ahead. After earned another setpoint he produced a superb backhand winner.
And it was the German who showed the greater composure at the crucial moments and he sensed his chance as Shapovalov served at 4-5 in the fourth, breaking to love to claim victory and move on to a third-round clash with Estonia’s Jurgen Zopp.
Richard Gasquet has moved into the third round for the eighth straight year after defeating Malek Jaziri of Tunisia 6-2 3-6 6-3 6-0.
The 27th-seeded Gasquet was joined in the third round on thursday by fellow Frenchman Lucas Pouille, who advanced past Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-2 6-4 5-7 7-6 (7-3) over two days after their match was stopped by darkness on Wednesday night.
At No. 16, Pouille is the highest-ranked Frenchman in the main draw, and it’s been 35 years since a player from the host nation lifted the men’s trophy in Paris.
It means that Kyle Edmund is the last Briton standing in the singles after he recovered from a mid-match blip to beat Hungarian Marton Fucsovics 6-0 1-6 6-2 6-3.
Third-seeded Marin Cilic overcame a concentration lapse to advance with a 6-2 6-2 6-7 (7-3) 7-5 second-round victory over Polish qualifier Hubert Hurkacz.
The Croatian, who won the US Open in 2014, was cruising until the third set, when Hurkacz broke him for the only time in the match.
Cilic, a quarterfinalist last year at Roland Garros, will next play 46th-ranked Steve Johnson of the US.