Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard now 5-1 against Top 20 players with victory over Tiafoe in Paris

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard continued his indoor winning streak at the Rolex Paris Masters on Tuesday, battling to a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-3 first-round victory over Frances Tiafoe in front of his home crowd.

The 6' 8" Frenchman, who won the biggest title of his career at the ATP 500 event in Basel last week, was forced to serve to stay in the match twice in the second set, at 4-5 and 5-6, but hung on both times and eventually snuck out the win after just over two hours.

“It means a lot to win in front of the French people. It’s unbelievable,” he said. “It was an amazing match for me. I did some good things—some bad things sometimes, but yeah it happens! The most important part is I have the win, and now I have to be focused for the next match. I hope to have the same crowd cheering for me.”

And with his win over the world No. 17, the 21-year-old Mpetshi Perricard is now 5-1 in his career against Top 20 players. All of those matches have come this year, and the only loss came to the only Top 10 player he’s faced, Carlos Alcaraz, in Beijing a few weeks ago.

MPETSHI PERRICARD VS TOP 20 PLAYERS (5-1):
d. No. 19 Bublik in ’24 Lyon SFs, 6-4, 7-5
d. No. 14 Shelton in ’24 Queen’s Club 1st Rd, 6-3, 7-6
l. to No. 3 Alcaraz in ’24 Beijing 1st Rd, 6-4, 6-4
d. No. 19 Auger-Aliassime in ’24 Basel 2nd Rd, 6-1, 7-6
d. No. 14 Rune in ’24 Basel SFs, 7-6, 6-4
d. No. 17 Tiafoe in ’24 Paris 1st Rd, 6-7 7-6 6-3

And then there’s the serving streak: Mpetshi Perricard has now held his last 80—yes, 80—service games in a row.

The streak actually began in Antwerp two weeks ago, as he held his last three service games of a 7-6 (4), 6-3 first-round loss to Thiago Seyboth Wild. The Brazilian broke him in the second game of the second set, and the two both held from there until it was over.

Then, he held all 60 of his service games en route to the title in Basel last week, going 11/11 against James Duckworth in the first round, 10/10 against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the second round, 17/17 against Denis Shapovalov in the quarterfinals, 11/11 against Holger Rune in the semifinals and 11/11 against Ben Shelton in the final.

And in Paris today, he held all 11 of his service games against Tiafoe.

He’s faced a total of seven break points in those 80 service games—two against Seyboth Wild in Antwerp, three against Shapovalov in Basel and two against Tiafoe—and saved them all.

Up next for the Frenchman will be No. 21-ranked Karen Khachanov.