Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard retires after freak eye injury in Montpellier

Home favorite Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard was forced to retire from his first-round match after suffering an unusual eye injury at the Open Occitanie on Monday.

The 22-year-old was facing French wild card Arthur Gea on Court Patrice Dominguez at the ATP 250 event in Montpellier. The big-serving Mpetshi Perricard was in trouble, with Gea serving for the first set at 5-3, 30-0 when the incident occurred.

Charging forward for a volley, Mpetshi Perricard saw Gea dig out a defensive reply. Attempting an extra backhand volley, he caught the ball off the frame of his racquet, sending it ricocheting straight into his face.

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The 6-foot-8 Frenchman immediately dropped to the court clutching his left eye. After treatment from tournament physios and an off-court medical timeout, he returned visibly struggling to keep the reddened, bloodshot eye open.

Gea closed out the first set one point later with a big serve that Mpetshi Perricard could only steer wide. Though he seemed to briefly consider continuing, the Frenchman ultimately retired after consulting his team, trailing 6-3 (ret.).

As a result, world No. 168 Gea advances to face No. 3 seed Tomas Machac in the second round.

“It’s never easy to see a friend (injured) like this,” Gea said during his on-court interview. “Obviously, I didn’t want to do (it like) this, but it’s the game. He touched the ball, (it was) not on purpose.

“I was handling the match really (well) in the beginning. I was really good on the court and he was also playing really good. It was really stressful, but it was a good match.”

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The incident drew comparisons to former world No. 7 David Goffin’s own freak eye injury in Rotterdam in 2018, when a ball similarly deflected off his racquet frame and into his left eye. Goffin avoided 'structural damage' but withdrew from subsequent tournaments due to lingering swelling.

Mpetshi Perricard is next scheduled to compete at the BNP Paribas Open, which begins March 4. He has yet to comment publicly on the nature of the injury.

The 22-year-old opened his season with back-to-back quarterfinal runs in Auckland and Brisbane and arrived in Montpellier looking to rebound after a five-set first-round loss to Sebastian Baez at the Australian Open.