The US Open started like almost all Grand Slam tournaments in recent years: with a French massacre. Monday, eight of the 12 Tricolores lined up took the door, including Richard Gasquet and all the players (Fiona Ferro, Varvara Gracheva, Alizé Cornet). Only Adrian Mannarino, Benjamin Bonzi (at the expense of his compatriot Quentin Halys), Hugo Gaston and Titouan Droguet made it through.
The latter, 171st in the world and out of qualifying (like Gaston), signed a huge feat by dominating the 20th at ATP, Lorenzo Musetti. Certainly the Italian, ultra-talented but unpredictable, can be a good draw when he is having a bad day. But from there to imagine a victory for Droguet, after 3h40 of combat and a “bubble” conceded in the 2nd set (6-3, 0-6, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-2)…
“It’s hard to put words, I still have trouble realizing, dropped after the fact the 22-year-old Ile-de-France resident, who had never played a Major before. Today’s game and the whole week are incredible emotions. It’s the first time I’ve experienced this, so it’s hard to realize. His joy after the meeting was proportional to the number of decibels emitted by his cry, once shaking his opponent’s hand.
He recovered from a 6-0 conceded in the second set
Droguet then detailed this journey into unknown territory. “It’s the first time I’ve played in three winning sets, so I’m trying to manage my efforts, but I didn’t really know how to do it, especially since I’m quite prone to cramps at the end of the match. – he continued, relayed by AFP. So in the second set, I tried to manage when I was way behind. The third set is a bit of a headache. I left the field to try to remobilize myself and I just said to myself “kiffe, there are people, a nice atmosphere, my friends, it’s going to be nice, fight until the end and you’ll see”. »
He came, he saw, he conquered. And he will considerably fill his bank account. Even if he stops in the 2nd round, against the Czech Jakub Mensik (206th in the world, also out of qualifying), scorer of Grégoire Barrère on Monday, Droguet will pocket 123,000 dollars (about 114,000 euros). That is more than all of his earnings since his professional debut in 2018: 119,000 dollars (110,000 euros). It must be said that the young Frenchman usually plays in Challenger tournaments, which are much less profitable than ATP tournaments.
He played his first final on this secondary circuit this year, in February in Cherbourg, lost like the next two, in Modena (Italy) in June then in Amersfoort (Netherlands) in July, far from the spotlights brutally shined on him during this US Open. The friend of Constant Lestienne and Arthur Fils, who came to support him on Saturday during his last qualifying match in New York, has the opportunity to extend the dream against Jakub Mensik. Before eventually finding the American Taylor Fritz, 9th in the world, in the third round.