Mpetshi Perricard ousts Tiafoe to reach Brisbane quarter-finals

Despite Benjamin Bonzi's elimination, French tennis will have a representative in the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 tournament in Brisbane.

After his first success against Nick Kyrgios in three tie-breaks (7-6, 6-7, 7-6), Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard faced Frances Tiafoe in the last 16.

The two men had already met at the end of 2024, in the first round of the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000.

Buoyed by his home crowd, Mpetshi Perricard upset the American (6-7, 7-6, 6-3). The 21-year-old hopes to repeat this performance, this time in Australia.

In a match in which both players had few opportunities to break, it was the Frenchman who was the most effective (1 break point converted out of 3, compared with 0 out of 2 for Tiafoe) to win the first set 6 games to 4.

The second set was just as tight, and went to a tiebreak without a break. Here too, Mpetshi Perricard was the more solid player, winning 6-4, 7-6.

Having hit more than 30 aces against Kyrgios in his opening match, last year's Wimbledon finalist once again improved his serve statistics (20 aces in 1h32).

In the quarter-finals, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard will be up against a new top-ranked server in Jakub Mensik. The Czech easily overcame Serbian lucky loser Dusan Lajovic (6-3, 6-2).