By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday September 28, 2020
Italy's Lorenzo Giustino battled past Corentin Moutet in a two-day six-hour marathon.
Photo Source: Getty
Two days. Six hours and five minutes. It was a marathon and a milestone wrapped into one for Italy’s Lorenzo Giustino, who edged Corentin Moutet in a long-lasting battle for the ages on Court No.14.
It was the second-longest Roland Garros match and the eighth-longest in Slam history.
Giustino’s 0-6, 7-6(7), 7-6(3), 2-6, 18-16 marked the first career Grand Slam for the 29-year-old Naples, Italy native. The three-hour third set alone featured 11 breaks of serve and 73 winners as each player tried to ramp up their aggression to put this match to bed.
I don't feel anything in my body right now. I feel empty,” Moutet said after the match.
Giustino, for obvious reasons, felt better.
“I feel perfect.” he said, half-joking.
It was a grueling battle, even on Sunday, when rain stopped play with the Italian up a break in the third set after the pair had split the first two.
After they resumed on Monday, Moutet broke back but could not take the tiebreaker, but he quickly rallied to take the fourth set.
Moutet then rallied from 3-0 down to 4-3 up in the fifth, but it was far from over. Moutet served for the match at 7-6, 14-13 and 15-14, but could not manage to hold.
“Well done to him,” Moutet said after the match. “We played a lot, we played a long time. Well done to him, quite simply. Was he braver? what more did he do than me? I don't know. In any case, he won, he held on physically, and in his head. So, well done to him, quite simply.”
This was Giustino’s second main draw match at a major, but he had failed to qualify on eleven other previous attempts over the last four seasons.
“It means a lot for me,” Giustino said. “I think I improve a lot in these last two years. I mean, I believe in myself that I can make something better than I was before. So I'm trying to improve and in all the aspects, mental aspect will be for sure one of the thing that I improved the most. Because here in Roland Garros I won 7-6 in the third round in qualies, 7-5 in the third second round in qualies, and now the fifth set. So I'm improving, I'm trying to improve a lot of stuff and try to grow up. I hope that this match can give me a boost in confidence to try to reach the to try to reach the top 100."