Carreno Busta Halts #NextGenATP Gaston's Dreams Of Another Big Paris Run
#NextGenATP Frenchman Hugo Gaston captured the world’s attention at Roland Garros, where he used his creativity to surge to the fourth round and pushed third seed Dominic Thiem to five sets. On Monday, Pablo Carreno Busta stopped Gaston before the lefty could gain momentum for another dream run in Paris.
The ninth seed defeated the home favourite 6-3, 6-2 in 69 minutes to reach the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters.
“I think I played good. I’m happy with the performance,” Carreno Busta said. “At the beginning of the match he started very aggressively and probably surprised me a little bit.
But after the first two games I think that I dominated the game again and I served good, I returned good. I played aggressively, so I was happy with the victory and with my game.”
Carreno Busta immediately lost his serve as Gaston showed some of the touch that helped him so often on the terre battue. The 20-year-old wild card showed his confidence with an early serve and volley, crisply carving a volley out of the recent US Open semi-finalist’s reach.
But the drop shot that served Gaston so well at Roland Garros wasn’t as successful against the ninth seed. Once Carreno Busta got back on serve, his game proved too solid for the Frenchman. The World No. 15 earned 13 break points, converting four of those chances in his victory. He will next play big-hitting German Jan-Lennard Struff, who eliminated Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 6-2.
“Of course today I’m sad. Playing against Pablo, he’s a very good player,” Gaston said. “It was a tough match for me, and congrats to him.
But of course to come back to Paris for me, it’s good. It’s nice.”
In the last match of the day, 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals competitor Alejandro Davidovich Fokina upset 11th seed Karen Khachanov 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in one hour and 48 minutes.
“I’m playing very well [from] the baseline. I think I’m very solid there,” Davidovich Fokina said. “When I move fast, I think I am [playing] my game very good.”
Khachanov has great memories at Paris-Bercy, where he won his first ATP Masters 1000 title in 2018. But the Spaniard frustrated him throughout the match with his all-court game, preventing the Russian from comfortably dictating play.
Davidovich Fokina, who saved five of the seven break points he faced, will play French wild card Benjamin Bonzi, who defeated Argentine lucky loser Federico Coria 6-2, 6-1.