Montpellier Open: Cazaux beats Wawrinka – 17 years his elder

Frenchman Arthur Cazaux reached the second round of the Montpellier Open by winning against Swiss wildcard Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3 at the Sud de France Arena on Monday evening.

The match got off to the worst possible start for Wawrinka, being broken in his very first service game to go down 1-0. After that, Cazaux had no trouble holding his own serve, not facing a break point until he attempted to serve out the set at 5-4 – saving both with precise serves and taking the set 6-4.

In the second set, the Swiss didn’t manage to see another opportunity to break, saving his first break point at 1-1, but was then broken in his next service game. Once Cazaux seen the opportunity to strike – strike he did – breaking once against on his first match point to seal the second set 6-3.

After the match, the Frenchman had some very kind words for the veteran:

“It was a very great honor to share the court with him,” the Frenchman said. “I watched him on TV when I was still very young, I saw him win his three Grand Slam titles.”

“It wasn’t easy, we had talked before the tournament to play the doubles together (they will face Griekspoor/Stevens in the first round), and we both trained on this court two days ago,” he added. “I had to stay focused, he played better in the second set, he served better, it was harder to put him under pressure at the restart.”

It was a very great honor to share the court with him

Cazaux, ranked No 101, will face second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime next.

Montpellier ATP 250, other first-round results (Sud de France Arena, hard, EUR 673.360, most recent results first):

• Jesper De Jong vs. Quentin Halys
• Aleksandar Kovacevic vs. David Goffin
• Nikoloz Basilashvili vs. Mikhail Kukushkin
• Harold Mayot vs. Arthur Rinderknech
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Richard Gasquet
• Mattia Bellucci vs. Lucas Pouille
• Tallon Griekspoor vs. Botic Van De Zandschulp
• Borna Coric vs. Constant Lestienne
• Christopher Eubanks vs. Alibek Kachmazov
• Gregoire Barrere vs. Dominik Koepfer
• Yunchaokete Bu (8) beat Daniel Altmaier: 7-6 (1), 6-3