Despite two match points, Moutet falls after a battle against Vukic in Metz

Corentin Moutet played his first-round match at the Metz tournament on Tuesday afternoon against Aleksandar Vukic, in a match that went down to the wire.

Ranked 31st in the world this week, Moutet made his debut at the Metz tournament on Tuesday, in the final match scheduled for the first round.

The Frenchman faced Aleksandar Vukic, an opponent who had beaten him in their only previous encounter, which was in the first round of the Shanghai Masters 1000 last year. Playing in front of his home crowd, Moutet hoped to get his revenge.

In a match where the servers dominated, it was the 26-year-old who scored the only break of the match, in the middle of the first set. After taking the lead, he saved two set points at the end of the second set, but ultimately the Australian was more solid to level the match at one set all.

The third set was full of emotion and suspense.
Moutet led for most of this decisive set. He even missed two match points on his opponent's serve at 5-4, and the two men ultimately were decided in a second tie-break.

The Frenchman thought he had done the hard part when he led 5 points to 1, but Vukic caught up, and even went ahead. After a completely crazy end to the match, Vukic finally converted his fourth match point (3-6, 7-6, 7-6 in 2h42). The Australian, ranked 87th in the world, thus advances to the second round and will face Matteo Berrettini on Wednesday for a place in the quarter-finals.