No Frenchmen, nor seeded players, in quarterfinals of Aix-en-Provence ATP Challenger

Ten Frenchman began their pursuit of the Open Aix Provence Crédit Agricole title on the ATP Challenger Tour two days ago, from world No. 314 ranked Arthur Gea to No. 3 seed in the draw Quentin Halys.

All 10 have bid adieu.

Halys, along with sixth seed Arthur Rinderknech and eighth seed Corentin Moutet, reached the second round, but that was as far as they'd go.

Argentina’s Mariano Navone kicked off match play on Thursday by knocking out the third-seeded Halys, 6-2, 6-4.

The second match in Aix-en-Provence saw back-to-back French upsets, if you go by seeding. Borna Coric conquered Rinderknech in a heated straight-set battle, 7-6 (3), 6-4. Rinderknech struck nine aces to Coric's zero, but the Croat won all first-serve points in the second set to maintain an unbeaten record against the Frenchman.

The final Frenchman to take the court was Moutet, who began Thursday by completing his first-round match against Pavel Kotov. The two battled to 7-5, 3-6, 5-5 on Wednesday—during which Moutet reported receiving death threats from Kotov.

Upon restarting, Moutet won eight of ten points to edge out the Russian. There was no handshake exchanged between the two players at net.

Moutet went onto play Reilly Opelka in the last second-round match of the day. The two met twice on tour previously, most recently in 2021. Both meetings went to a deciding set, with each player claiming a victory.

Today was a different story.

Opelka edged out the first set tiebreak, 7-3, earning set points with a 141 m.p.h. serve. The first break of the match also went in Opelka’s favor early in the second set, but Moutet rallied from 2-4 down to 5-4 with a love-hold service game.

They would head to a tiebreak, and in two hours and five minutes—with ten aces to his credit—Opelka knocked out the Frenchman and earned the final spot in the Challenger quarterfinals.

Not only was Moutet the final Frenchman in contention at a home tournament, but he was also the last seeded player left in the draw.

The results see no Frenchmen in the Aix-en-Provence quarterfinal since 2018, and all seeded players out of the running.

Wild card Stan Wawrinka is the new head of the draw after taking out top seed Alexei Popyrin. He meets Nishesh Basavareddy for the first time, and on the American's 20^th birthday.

Navone and Coric battle each other in the quarterfinals, alongside clashes between Valentin Vacherot and Borna Gojo, and Opelka and qualifier Ignacio Buse.

The tournament continues through Sunday, May 4, on the Tennis Channel app. ATP Challenger Estoril is also streaming live all week long, where American Alex Michelsen is the top seed remaining following a second-round loss from Felix Auger-Aliassime.

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