Present in the second round of the Australian Open, Enzo Couacaud faces Novak Djokovic this Thursday, January 19 and the Frenchman, with a tormented course, created a sensation by pocketing the 2nd set against the Serb.
A great revenge is what Frenchman Enzo Couacaud signed on Thursday January 19, 2023 on the main court of the Australian Open. The Frenchman, opposed to Novak Djokovic after coming out of qualifying, created a sensation by equalizing at one set everywhere. After having logically suffered the law of the former world number 1 (6-1 in the first set), the native of Mauritius pocketed the 2nd set in the deciding game 7-6, signing an authentic feat since rarely ” Nole” had conceded a set against a player out of qualifying for a Grand Slam tournament.
The logic was then respected for a victory for Djokovic in four sets: 6-1, 6-7, 6-2, 6-0 and 2h55 of play. The Serb advances a little more like the big favorite of the Australian tournament but Couacaud was not unworthy, he who had won only two Grand Slam matches in his entire career so far.
5. For the 5th time in his career, Novak Djokovic conceded a set against a player from Grand Slam qualifications (for 66 sets won).
2007 vs Recouderc
2009 vs Witten
2011 vs Tomic
2021 vs Rune
2023 vs Couacaud#HomeOfTennis pic.twitter.com/uhxvlFOYV4— Game, Set and Maths (@JeuSetMaths) January 19, 2023
Criticized for years, Enzo Couacaud is simply playing the biggest match of his career this Thursday, January 19 at the Road Laver Arena for the second round of the Australian Open. Facing him, a monster, Novak Djokovic. Easy in the first round, the Serb is aiming for a new Grand Slam title and the place of world number 1, but his route will pass through the Frenchman.
191st in the world in the ATP rankings, Enzo Couacaud is playing for the first time in his career a player in the top 10, his biggest success in terms of ranking dates back to October 2014 at the Rennes Challenger where he beat Robin Haase, then 73rd in the ATP in the quarter-finals.
Who is Enzo Couacaud? A difficult journey
Born in 1995 near Curepipe in Mauritius, Enzo Couacaud has been a professional tennis player since 2013. Promising among young people, 17th in the world among juniors in 2013, the Frenchman has had to deal with numerous injuries, particularly to the elbow with two operations in 2017 and 2018. For The Team in 2022, the Frenchman confided in this difficulty and the prejudices he had to suffer on a daily basis about his origins. “When you’re injured for so long, whether you like it or not, you take a hell of a slap. Without tennis, what am I? Who am I? What do I love? What do I do? What am I worth? What do I have? like values? At first, I didn’t have the answers. It was very, very hard.”
“While I was out, I heard all the time, ‘The guy won’t come back, he’s dead.’ Coaches said to me, ‘You’re a Futures player, stay there. where you are.” It never put me in the bucket, on the contrary I always fed on it. I was also told: “You’re a guy from the islands, you get up late and you drink rum”, while I’m always the first in the room at the CNE and the last to leave.”