After a mad dash across Europe, clay court specialist Marco Trungelliti will take the spot of Nick Kyrgios to play Bernard Tomic in the first round of the French Open. Join The Roar for live scores from 7pm (AEST).
Kyrgios was a late withdrawal due to his long-running elbow injury, so Tomic takes on a lucky loser from the qualifying draw.
The only problem with that was only one lucky loser had signed in on the first day of competition, being Mohamed Safwat, with every other non-qualifier having left Paris.
If Kyrgios had pulled out 24 hours earlier, Indian Prajesh Gunneswaran would have been in the draw, but he is playing a challenger tournament. The next man on the list, Trungelliti, decided to load up his car and drive nine hours from Barcelona to take the spot.
After arriving in Paris at close to midnight last night, he signed in this morning and is now tasked with an 11am match. But then, wouldn’t you go through that for a guaranteed 40,000 euros and a chance at grand slam success?
However fascinating this story is, Trungelliti is going to be fatigued and may struggle to get up against Tomic, despite the success he has had on clay, even if at challenger level.
In 620 total matches across his career, the Argentine has played a staggering 493 on clay, winning 303 times to give him a 61 per cent success rate. While he is ranked at the back end of the 200s, he was strong in his first two qualifying matches before losing to Hubert Hurkacz in three hard-fought sets.
And who would have thought the intrigue over Tomic’s first grand slam main draw match in two years would have been around his opponent?
The Aussie has had a long run in the wilderness, his ranking dropping outside the top 200 at one point as he went off the rails. Yet, after missing the Australian Open with a disastrous loss in qualifying, he turned things around recently with a run to his first clay court final at a challenger, in Aix En, eventually losing to John Millman.
He then blasted through qualifying without dropping a set, getting the better of Darian King, Jay Clarke and Goncalo Oliveira.
While the risk of an implosion always seems imminent, this is the best Tomic has played in quite some time on his least favourite surface.
Prediction
If Tomic can’t win this match, with all the odds pointing in his favour, then he will never win another match at the French Open. Trungelliti might actually put up a fight, but lasting five sets should be well beyond the Argentinian.
Tomic in four sets.
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