Kouame’s fairytale ends in four sets against Tabilo

Moïse Kouamé, the 17-year-old French wild card whose first Roland-Garros had carried him through Marin Cilic and a five-hour, two-points-from-defeat survival of Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, was beaten 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(9) by Chilean Alejandro Tabilo on Court Suzanne-Lenglen on Saturday evening – saving four match points in the deciding tie-break before going down on the fifth.

The breaker ran 11-9. The 17-year old wild-card saw the run end short of the second week.

“I tried to stay on him in the fourth set, and actually it worked, because I got the tiebreak at the end”, Kouame said. “Today it was mostly in the tiebreak where I served a couple match points, and I had to do something more to provide myself a set point. I really, really wanted to try another five-setter. I was feeling that the crowd was supporting me more and more. I was trying to suck in all of their positive energy.”

You might also like this

Berrettini and Cerúndolo, the Sinner conqueror, both come through five-set marathons to set up a round-of-16 meeting at Roland-Garros

tennis majors

“How many times do I have to say I play De Jong?”: at Roland-Garros, the elephant in the room is the open draw

tennis majors

The mismatch in the contest came down to legs as much as to level. Tabilo, the 36th-ranked Chilean who had beaten Polish lucky loser Kamil Majchrzak in straight sets and then benefited from Valentin Vacherot’s foot-injury withdrawal in the second round, had spent only one hour and 53 minutes on a Roland-Garros court before the third round.

Kouame had spent more than eight hours – four sets against Cilic, five against Vallejo. The numbers reflected the gap. Tabilo won 76 per cent of his first-serve points to Kouamé’s 69 per cent, 55 per cent of his second-serve points to the teenager’s 46, and converted five of 17 break-point chances to Kouamé’s four of 10.

The Frenchman finished with 11 double faults to Tabilo’s three. Both held tight on the big points – Tabilo saved six of 10 break points, Kouamé 12 of 17 – but Tabilo’s serve carried the lighter load through the fourth set’s closing exchanges.

No French in the draw anymore

Kouamé was the last French player in the men’s draw. With his exit and that of Quentin Halys on Friday evening against Alexander Zverev, no French man will play in the second week of Roland-Garros for the second year running.

Tabilo reaches the round of 16 at a Grand Slam for the first time. He will face the winner of Canada’s Félix Auger-Aliassime, the fourth seed, against American 31st seed Brandon Nakashima – the half of the men’s draw that has lost almost every leading name above him.

Roland-Garros 2026 Men’s Singles – 3rd Round

JM.Cerundolo – M.Landaluce: 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (8)

M.Berrettini – F.Comesana: 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(13)

J.Faria (Q) vs F.Tiafoe (19) – UPCOMING

M.Arnaldi – R.Collignon: 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6

F.Auger-Aliassime (4) vs B.Nakashima (31) – UPCOMING

A.Tabilo – M.Kouame (W): 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(9)

F.Cobolli (10) – L.Tien (18): 6-2, 6-2, 6-3

Z.Svajda – F.Cerundolo (25): 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3

J.Mensik (26) – A.De Minaur (8): 6-0, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3

A.Rublev (11) – N.Borges: 7-5, 7⁷-6², 7⁷-6², 7⁷-6²

C.Ruud (15) – T.Paul (24): 4-6, 6⁴-7⁷, 6-4, 7-6⁴, 7-5

J.Fonseca (28) – N.Djokovic (3): 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 7-5

R.Jodar (27) – A.Michelsen: 7⁷-6², 6⁵-7⁷, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3

P.Carreno Busta – TA.Tirante: 7⁷-6⁰, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4

J.De Jong (LL)- – K.Khachanov (13): 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, 6²-7⁷, 6-4

A.Zverev (2) – Q.Halys: 6-4, 6-3, 5-7², 6-2