At number 732 in the world rankings, German tennis hope Liam Gavrielides started the week better placed than ever, but the year 2024 has only had unpleasant surprises so far – including on Wednesday.
At the lower-class M15 tournament in Grenoble, France, Liam Gavrielides lost in the first round 4:6 and 3:6 against Frenchman Antoine Walch, who is only ranked 1766th in the ATP rankings.
Gavrielides, who like Walch successfully fought his way through the qualification, got off to a better start in the game and quickly moved away to 4-1 thanks to many aces – but then the 20-year-old collapsed and didn’t win any more games in the first set and got the first break early in the second round.
Particularly bitter: Walch is by no means an up-and-coming talent, but is already 30 years old and is also more of an occasional player on the tour. In 2020 and 2021 he only appeared once, in 2022 twice, and in 2023 Walch took part in six tournaments: However, the big success is not reflected in the results.
Two German tennis players top seed
Gavrielides has also been chasing great success in 2024 in vain so far: At the start of the year, the DTB hope tried twice in Manacor (M15), but lost the opener each time, and then suffered a narrow defeat in qualifying for the Challenger tournament in Koblenz (6:7, 6:3 and 4:6 against the Belgian Michael Geerts).
In addition to Gavrielides, two other Germans are at the start in Grenoble. Daniel Masur (number 392 in the ATP ranking) confidently won his opener as number one in the seeding list against Frenchman Luc Fomba (number 1322 in the ATP ranking) in two sets, while Elmar Ejupovic (number 421 in the ATP ranking) failed due to Antoine Hoang (number 580 in the ATP ranking).
Hoang is now Walch’s next opponent.