Plenty Of French Players In Moselle Open Draw, But Few Winners So Far

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard
Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (photo: Chryslène Caillard)

METZ/WASHINGTON, November 3, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

As the first round of the Moselle Open began in earnest on Monday in northeastern France, during the final week of the ATP Tour’s regular season, it’s no surprise that this 250-series indoor hard-court event is heavily fortified with French players, including World No. 28 Arthur Rinderknech and No. 31 Corentin Moutet.

Not only will the French players help fill seats throughout the week at Les Arenes des Metz, they’re helping fill spots in the draw left vacated due to a rash of injury withdrawals, too.

After World No. 8 and top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada withdrew from the tournament Monday afternoon, citing a left knee injury after finishing runner-up to Jannik Sinner in the Rolex Paris Masters a day earlier, a French lucky loser was added to the draw: 204th-ranked Dan Added.

A quick perusal of the tournament’s current singles lineup reveals that half of the 28 players – 14 in all – comprising the main draw are from France. The next-highest representation comes from Italy with four.

Already, six of the 14 Frenchmen entered have been eliminated after Arthur Cazaux defeated Adrian Mannarino in straight sets and wild card Hugo Gaston took out Terence Atmane in just 51 minutes on Sunday afternoon, in a pair of all-French encounters to begin the tournament, which runs through Saturday. 

The flashy 69th-ranked Cazaux was a recent titlist of the ATP Challenger Tour’s Jinan Open, while 98th-ranked lefty Gaston lifted the trophy at the Brest Open Challenger event two weeks ago.

Then, on Monday, No. 38 Learner Tien of the United States advanced past 143rd-ranked French wild card Ugo Blanchet, 6-3, 6-3, in 65 minutes after dropping just two points on his first serve and outpointing his opponent 67-41 to advance against 140th-ranked Tunisian lucky loser Moez Echargui. It was the 19-year-old Tien’s 28th tour-level victory of the season. He is set to complete at next month’s Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he’s currently in second place in the Live Race standings.

Blanchet was one of five Frenchmen in action at Les Arenes de Metz, that also included No. 56 Valentin Royer, No. 59 Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and 84th-ranked Quentin Halys, plus 243rd-ranked qualifier Clement Tabur.

Following Blanchet’s departure on Court 1, Mpetshi Perricard was surprised by 222nd-ranked Ukrainian lucky loser Vitaliy Sachko, 7-6 (10), 6-3, in an hour and 32  minutes on Court Central. It was the 28-year-old Sachko’s first ATP Tour win outside of Davis Cup competition and he became just the third player from Ukraine to win a match at Metz and first since Illya Marchenko to win an ATP Tour match since 2021. 

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The disappointing  loss for Mpetshi Perricard, his second-straight first-round defeat in his last two tournaments, prevented him from reaching 20 victories for the first time in a season. 

Sachko struck 18 winners to 16 unforced errors, while Mpetshi Perricard countered with 19 winners – including 10 aces – but committed 25 unforced errors and hit six double faults. Sachko, who outpointed his opponent 78-66, will face World No. 13 and third seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in the second round.

Meanwhile, Royer became the fifth French player overall and third on the day to bow out of the tournament after he lost to No. 7 seed Cameron Norrie of Great Britain, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-3, in two hours and six minutes in one of Monday evening’s featured matches. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Royer and Norrie produced a lot of long and entertaining rallies throughout. The Frenchman managed to save a match point with an acrobatic, 10th-shot overhead smash winner. However, the British No. 2 closed out his 31st win of the season on the next point to advance against Cazaux in the second round Tuesday evening.

Norrie hit 32 winners – 10 of them aces – and faced no break points on his serve. He outpointed Royer 93-80. By comparison, Royer struck 34 winners – including 10 aces – and won 84 percent (43 of 51) of his first-serve points.

“The whole match was not easy,” Norrie said during his on-court interview, giving props Royer. “He’s had an amazing year – his first proper year on the Tour – and he’s almost Top 50. He doesn’t have any holes in his game, he’s young. He’s a good guy. I told him at the end he’s had a great year and deserves a little rest.

“I had to fight hard. I was really happy with how I looked after my service games. It was a pretty clean match. He fought hard and competed well to win the second set. He’s a great player.”

Later, Halys became the six French player to bow out in the opening round after he was defeated by No. 61 Matteo Berrettini of Italy, 6-2, 6-4, in 63 minutes to round out the day’s action on Court Central. Berrettini, who hit 24 winners and made just 10 unforced errors, could face another Frenchman in the second round if the No. 8-seeded Moutet defeats No. 87 Aleksandar Vukic of Australia on Tuesday.

Looking back, it was not a good day or evening for French tennis hopefuls – or fans.

Sonego only past champion in this year’s draw

No. 42 Lorenzo Sonego of Italy, who won the 2022 Metz title and is the only former champion in this year’s draw, advanced over 126th-ranked British qualifier Jan Choinski of Great Britain, a four-time winner this season on the ATP Challenger Tour, who was playing in his first tour-level main draw in 2025. Sonego rallied from a set down for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory in two hours and 15 minutes on Court Central to open play Monday, winning with a seventh-shot backhand volley on his second match-point opportunity. Sonego improved to 6-0 in first-round matches at Metz.

“It was really tough at the beginning of the match,” Sonego said during his on-court interview after improving his win-loss record this season to 23-28. “It was really hard to focus and put up my game. I changed something in the second set. I became more aggressive and felt really good in the second and third sets. I’m glad to be in the second round.”

Sonego collected 34 winners – including 11 aces – and converted three of four break points. He outpointed Choinski 95-85. In his next match, Sonego will face fellow Italian and No. 4 seed Flavio Cobolli, ranked 22nd, Tuesday evening.

Around Les Arenes de Metz

• When the ATP Tour’s 2026 calendar was released last February, the Moselle Open, which has been held in Metz over the past 22 years, was not included in the schedule.

In a statement issued by the ATP early this year, it said: “The ATP Tour has determined that an ongoing and prolonged legal dispute regarding the ownership of the Moselle Open and its members has prevented strategic planning and decision-making, which was not in the best interests of the tournament or the ATP Tour. Following a thorough review of the situation, the ATP Tour Board of Directors has decided to terminate the tournament’s ATP Tour membership.”

Also, the Moselle Open has already been hampered by a trio of late withdrawals after the draw was released on Friday. No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev, No. 5 seed Tallon Griekspoor and Tomas Machac all scratched due to injuries over the weekend, which meant the addition of three lucky losers: Kyrian Jacquet of France, Vitaliy Sachko of Ukraine and Moez Echargui of Tunisia. 

Then, on Monday afternoon, World No. 8 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, who was drawn as the No. 1 seed, pulled out of the tournament. The Canadian No. 1 is currently in eighth place in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, ahead of No. 9 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, who is playing this week in Athens and must win the tournament in order to overtake Auger-Aliassime for the last spot in the Nitto ATP Finals draw.

Auger-Aliassime (48-22 on the 2025 season) told reporters after losing the final of the Rolex Paris Masters to Jannik Sinner of Italy on Sunday that he had been struggling with a lot of physical issues during the past week while competing in Paris. 

With lucky loser Dan Added of France added to replace Auger-Aliassime, he received the No. 1 seed’s first-round bye and will face either 156th-ranked lucky loser Kyrian Jacquet or 172nd-ranked qualifier Luca Van Assche, both from France. It assures that at least one French player will make it to the quarterfinal round.

• Qualifier Clement Tabur of France, ranked 243rd, upset No. 62 Aleksandar Kovacevic of the United States, 6-3, 6-2, in 66 minutes on Court 1, after converting three of four break points and outpointing the American 62-33 to earn his first tour-level victory. Next, he will face either 129th-ranked qualifier Francesco Passaro of Italy or No. 102 Alexander Blockx of Belgium, who play Tuesday.

• With Doubles No. 1 seeds Andre Goransson of Sweden and Jan Zielinski of Poland eliminated in the first round by Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli and Arjun Kadhe of India on Sunday, the draw has opened up. On Monday, No. 3 seeds Guido Andreozzi of Argentina and Manuel Guinard of France advanced to the quarterfinals with a 4-6, 6-0, 10-7 win over Jakub Paul of Switzerland and Matej Vogel of Czechia. French wild cards Dan Added and Tom Paris also moved into the last eight with their 6-2,5-7, 10-5 win over Theo Arribage and Albano Olivetti of France. Also, Czechia’s Petr Nouza and Patrik Rikl advanced over Diego Hidalgo of Ecuador and Patrik Trhac of the United States, 6-3, 6-4.

Monday’s Moselle Open results

Tuesday’s Moselle Open order of play

By the numbers

Arnaud Clement of France won the inaugural Metz tournament in 2003. Since then, the tournament has been won by a Frenchman a dozen times: Jerome Haehnel (2004), Gael Monfils (2009), Gilles Simon (2010, 2013 and 2018), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2011-’12, 2015 and 2019), Lucas Pouille (2016), Ugo Humbert (2023) and Benjamin Bonzi (2024).

“Quotable …”

“We are friends. It’s always tough to play against friends. We go outside together sometimes and take dinner together. We watched Roma and Torino [football] together. I will enjoy the atmosphere. I like to play in Metz.”

– Lorenzo Sonego of Italy, during his on-court interview after winning his first-round match Monday, on facing his friend and fellow Italian Flavio Cobolli in his next match on Tuesday evening.

 

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