Italian 29-year-old qualifier Lorenzo Giustino battled past Frenchman Corentin Moutet 0-6 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-3) 2-6 18-16 to achieve his first tour level win. The match, which stretched over two days due to rain, came close to breaking the 16-year-old record for the longest match in the history of Roland Garros.
The fifth set lasted three hours. The record for the longest match at the French Open is held by Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement, who engaged an epic 6 hour and 33-minute first-round battle on Court Suzanne Lenglen in 2004.
The match resumed on Monday afternoon, as world number 156 Giustino was leading by a break at 4-3 in the third set. Moutet broke back in the 10th game. Giustino closed out the tie-break 7-3 with a backhand.
Both players traded breaks in the first two games of the fourth set. Moutet got two consecutive breaks in the fifth and seventh games to win the fourth set 6-2.
Giustino led 3-0 with a break in the second game in the fifth set. Moutet broke twice in the fifth and seventh games, but Giustino broke back in the eighth game. Moutet broke again in the 13th game, but was broken back in the next game.
Giustino held a match point at 8-7, as Moutet was serving at 30-40. Moutet broke to serve for the match at 14-13 and 15-14. Giustino fought back from 15-40 when he was serving at 16-16. Moutet fended off a second match point at 16-17 15-40, when Giustino hit a backhand long. Giustino hit a forehand that forced Moutet to slice into the net on his third match point to win a nerve-wracking match. Giustino hit 57 winners to 96 unforced errors.
Giustino won his first of his five matches on the ATP Tour. The Italian player set up a second round clash against last week’s Rome Masters 1000 finalist Diego Schwarzman.
“It means a lot for me. I think I improved a lot in these past two years. I believe in myself that I can make something better than I was before. I am trying to improve and in all the aspects, mental aspect will be for sure one of the things that I improved the most”, said Giustino.
Moutet, who lost to Andrey Rublev in last January’s final in Doha, has a 8-7 record in 2020.
“My feelings, I don’t know. We played a very long match. I don’t feel anything in my body right now. I am empty”, said Moutet.
