Well, he maybe the youngest guy in the draw but he certainly gave Murray - who was far from his best - a fright on Sunday, taking him to 5 sets.
It took Eysseric a while to find his feet but after losing the first set 6 - 2 he started to play without fear, stepping in and attacking Murray's serve, and coming up with some great shots.
And suddenly errors started to creep into the Murray game, allowing Eysseric to take a 2 - 1 lead. But just as he was on the verge of a memorable upset Eysseric ran out of gas, and Murray turned on the screws wrapping up the final 2 sets 6 - 0, 6 - 2.
I won't pretend I'd heard of Eysseric before the draw was published last week and having only seen limited highlights, it's not clear to me whether he's got a future in the big time, or whether, like many junior hotshots before him he won't be able to make the step up.
So I googled him to get a bit of background. Born in France, 18 years ago today, he's a leftie, below average height for a pro player, but very quick around court.
He was junior finalist at the Australian Open 2007, and won the junior US Open doubles in 2007. Currently ranked 390 in the world.
And after the glamour of Paris he's back on the futures tour next week...
You can watch the highlights here.
2 comments:
Hi Steve. I just watched those highlights, and I guess by the scoreline, if you can go five sets with a top-15 player on any surface, you have the goods—or definitely the potential.
But you know, I don't think Murray's really that good of a clay-court player: Watching those highlights, it looks like his clay-court game comes from the 1980s! I remember that match he played against Monfils in the first round a couple of years ago and just thought that he's not capable of putting the ball away. I don't think he has the strength to hit through the court on slower surfaces.
He's probably one of the best counterpunchers out there, which does him well on fast surfaces, but not so much on the slower ones.
Maybe Murray knows how to play on clay after all! My mistake! Did you see the scoreline on that Acasuso match? He destroyed him! Almagro's going to be tough.
Post a Comment