At 17, Kouamé beats former US Open champion Cilic on Grand Slam debut, the youngest man through to round two at Roland-Garros since 2009
Moise Kouame won against Marin Cilic 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-1 on Tuesday and will face the winner of the match between Englishman Cameron Norrie, the No 20 seed, and Paraguayan Adolfo Daniel Vallejo in the next round
Moïse Koumé and Marin Cilic, Roland-Garros 2026 | © Chryslène Caillaud / PsNewz
Moïse Kouamé, the 17-year-old French wild card playing the first Grand Slam main-draw match of his career, beat 37-year-old former US Open champion Marin Cilic 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-1 on Court Simonne-Mathieu on Tuesday to reach the second round of Roland-Garros – and to enter the tournament’s record books.
The Sarcelles-born teenager, co-coached by Richard Gasquet, becomes the first man born in 2008 or later to contest a Grand Slam main draw. He is the youngest man to play at Roland-Garros since Bernard Tomic, also 16, in 2009, is now the youngest man to reach the second round of this tournament since Romanian Dinu Pescariu, 17, in 1991.
Kouame is also the second-youngest Frenchman to win a match at this event in the Open Era after Thierry Tulasne, who was 16 when he beat Jean-Marc Boileau in 1980.
Kouamé’s dominance
Cilic, ranked No. 46 in the world and a 2014 US Open champion and 2022 Roland-Garros semi-finalist, had been the heavy favourite on paper. The first set held that pattern until the tie-break, where Kouamé took control – running it 7-4 and never letting the Croatian back into the contest.
From there the numbers turned. The 17-year-old saved all seven break points he faced, broke Cilic four times in seven chances of his own, and out-served the former US Open champion 6 aces to 4. He won 70 per cent of points behind his first serve to Cilic’s 57, and 69 per cent behind his second to Cilic’s 50.
Cilic, who had not been broken once in the opening set, watched his game come apart through the second and third – 44 unforced errors to the teenager’s 29, and a closing 8-2 stretch over the last ten points of the match.
Age gap
The win is Kouamé’s second tour-level victory of his career, the first on clay, and his first against a top-50 player. His first had come earlier this season at the Miami Masters 1000, where he beat American Zachary Svajda.
The same Svajda features in the age-gap record book. The 20 years and five months between Kouamé and Cilic was the second-largest age gap in any Grand Slam men’s singles match this century, behind only Zachary Svajda, 16, against Paolo Lorenzi, 37, at the 2019 US Open.
He will face the winner of Britain’s Cameron Norrie, the 20th seed, against Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo in the second round. He will also face every camera and column the tournament can point at him.
