Touched, Halys confides: "Ending up like that".
For Quentin Halys, the dream turned into a bit of a nightmare on Sunday.
Ranked 192nd in the world on Monday, the Frenchman was on course to achieve something big on the clay of Gstaad.
After emerging from the qualifying rounds with a flourish, Halys had put in one good performance after another, even beating Struff in the semi-finals (6-3, 7-6). But everything changed in the final.
Faced with a Matteo Berrettini who was back to his best, the Frenchman could do nothing, losing by a wide margin (6-3, 6-1).
Although he didn't play his best tennis (10 winners, 7 unforced errors), it was the Italian who played far too well for the match to be decided (23 winners, 2 unforced errors).
When asked about this very difficult defeat, the 27-year-old declared: "Obviously, I'm very disappointed with my performance today. It was the best week of my career.
It's disappointing to finish like this, and I'm very sad. Thank you for letting me experience these emotions. I had a lot of fun and I'll be back here with great pleasure."
Gstaad 
