Thunderbolt on Play In Challenger Lille, Grégoire Barrère (ranked 178th), two times winner of the tournament (2018 and 2019), who lost only one match in 18, was ousted as of the second round by amazing Alexis Galarneau (ranked 353rd), coming from qualifyings. Not impressed by fantastic atmosphere of the night session, Canadian player took his chance and forced the Parisian to commit a lot of mistakes: 6-4, 6-2. For the first time, Play In Challenger final will be played without Grégoire Barrère, but Lille people found a new favorite with the player from Quebec.
A bit sooner in the evening, Ricardas Berankis (ranked 87th) justified his top seed status of the tournament, upsetting, however with difficulties, German Tobias Kamke (ranked 292th), 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Fils, more and more impressive
In the other matches of the day, two French players validated their ticket for quarter finals: Arthur Fils (ranked 479th), the youngest player of the tournament, 17 years, ousetd Dutch player Robin Haase (ranked 263rd), despite being two times older than him, 7-6, 6-4. “I managed to fight and I am happy to conclude it in 3 sets“, enjoyed Emmanuel Planque’s player. He will be faced this Friday to Picard Constant Lestienne (ranked 205th), who defeated another French player, Sean Cuenin (ranked 826th): 6-4, 6-1.
