{"id":672050,"date":"2026-05-29T11:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T11:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/672050\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T11:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T11:53:15","slug":"who-is-moise-kouame-wildcard-makes-more-french-open-history-after-victory-over-grand-slam-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/672050\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Moise Kouame? Wildcard makes more French Open history after victory over grand slam champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With the French Open<\/a> crowd chanting his name and the teenage wildcard leading their ferocious roars, the sensational Moise Kouame made more history as he advanced to the third round on his first appearance at a grand slam tournament in a remarkable five-set win.<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old Frenchman, who became the youngest man to win a match at Roland Garros since 1991 when he defeated former grand slam champion Marin Cilic<\/a> in the first round, is now the youngest man to reach the third round of a grand slam since Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2003.<\/p>\n

Kouame, ranked 313 in the world, secured just the third tour-level victory of his career on Thursday, and did so the hard way as he defeated Paraguay\u2019s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo in a five-set epic lasting nearly five hours 6-3 7-5 3-6 2-6 7-6 (10\/8). <\/p>\n

Somehow, in by far the longest match of his life and first five-setter, Kouame produced an astonishing surge of energy to get over the line. <\/p>\n

\"KouameKouame whipped the crowd into a frenzy during his astonishing win to reach the third round (Reuters)<\/p>\n

\u201cJust one word, merci, this victory belongs to all of you,\u201d Kouame told the crowd during his on-court interview. \u201cThank you because without you I would have never, never ever won this match. You don\u2019t realise how you supported me. You were stronger than me physically, you gave me life!<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, I watched Carlos Alcaraz against Jannik Sinner, I saw how Alcaraz saved match points to win. At 5-3 down in the fifth set, I never stopped believing. No one must stop believing, ever.\u201d When Kouame was asked how he was going to recover for his next match, the 17-year-old smiled and replied: \u201cThank you guys!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kouame is the youngest man to reach the third round of the French Open since Michael Chang in 1988; Chang is the youngest man in history to win a grand slam singles title, having done so at the 1989 French Open at 17. <\/p>\n

The Paris-born Kouame made his Roland Garros debut the day after French favourite Gael Monfils waved goodbye to the tournament at the age of 39. Now, the French Open may be witnessing the arrival of a new star in Kouame, who is coached by France\u2019s Richard Gasquet, a former prodigy who reached a career-high No 7. <\/p>\n

He played into the excitement generated by first-round win over Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, by demanding more from the packed Court Suzanne-Lenglen crowd. Having been scheduled to play on the tournament\u2019s second-biggest court, Kouame whipped the crowd into a frenzy by pointing to his ear and asking for more after winning the second set. <\/p>\n

\"MoiseMoise Kouame dedicated his win to the support he received from the French Open crowd (Reuters)<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old Vallejo, who was also bidding to make the third round for the first time, responded to win the third and fourth sets, as Kouame appeared to fade physically. But the Frenchman battled from a break down in the decider, leaping around the court to extend the points and produce show-stopping shots from all angles in the biggest moments. <\/p>\n

Kouame will now play Chile\u2019s Alejandro Tabilo, the world No 36, in the third round on Saturday. Tabilo advanced to the third round of the French Open for the first time when Valentin Vacherot, the Shanghai champion and 16th seed, withdrew due to a foot injury, in what is an open section of the Roland Garros draw. The tournament has also been blown apart by Jannik Sinner\u2019s shock exit<\/a>. <\/p>\n

From tour debut to French Open breakthrough in three months<\/p>\n

Kouame became the youngest man to win a match at Roland Garros since 1991 as the teenage wildcard defeated former US Open champion Marin Cilic in straight sets on his first appearance at a grand slam tournament. <\/p>\n

Kouame triumphed 7-6 6-1 6-1 against the veteran Cilic, 37. With his win, Kouame also became the youngest man to win a grand slam match since a 16-year-old Bernard Tomic advanced to the second round of the 2009 Australian Open. <\/p>\n

Kouame only made tour-level debut in Montpellier in February. He won his first tour-level match at this season\u2019s Miami Open, becoming the youngest man to win a Masters match since Rafael Nadal in 2003. <\/p>\n

Before the French Open, Kouame\u2019s only other appearance in the main draw of an ATP tournament came on the clay in Monte Carlo in April, where the teenager also had a practice session with world No 1 Jannik Sinner before exiting in the first round. <\/p>\n

He was given one of the eight wildcard slots into the French Open and with his win over Cilic became the youngest man to reach the second round of Roland Garros since Romania\u2019s Dinu Pescariu in 1991, and the second youngest Frenchman to win a match at the French Open after a 16-year-old Thierry Tulasne in 1980. <\/p>\n

\"KouameKouame triumphed in the blazing Paris heat, beating Cilic in straight sets to reach the second round (Reuters)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of emotion, it\u2019s exceptional,\u201d said Kouame. \u201cComing into this tournament, I didn\u2019t really know what to expect. The team and I worked hard to be as ready as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll \u200bthe experience I gained in Miami and Monte \u200cCarlo probably helped me a little. Technically, I felt pretty calm. I knew I was ready and I felt good mentally and physically.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cilic, a former French Open semi-finalist who is 20 years older than Kouame, was making his 18th appearance in the Roland Garros main draw. He won his only grand slam title at the 2014 US Open and also reached Wimbledon and Australian Open finals. <\/p>\n

According to Opta, Kouame also became the youngest player in the Open era to defeat a former grand slam champion at Roland Garros. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-672050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}