He’s the talk of French tennis at the start of this season. After shining on the lower circuits, Moise Kouame secured a wildcard for the main draw of the Miami Masters 1000. It was hard to gauge his real chances, especially since his first-round opponent, Zachary Svajda, was already ranked in the top 100.
It was clear the Frenchman was understandably nervous at the start of the match. There were fears of an early break that could have changed the whole dynamic, but Kouame landed enough first serves, even holding serve to love.
If Svajda was expecting an easy match, he was in for a surprise: the American started to falter and gave up the first break in the fifth game. The Frenchman tightened up when trying to consolidate his lead, missed more first serves, even had to save a break point, but still managed to stay comfortably ahead by capitalising on his opponent’s many errors.
But missing so many first serves couldn’t go unpunished, and Svajda broke back to level at 4-4. From then on, Kouame faced a new kind of pressure: serving to stay in the set. He handled the first attempt perfectly, holding to love. But on the second, his first serve deserted him again, and the American seized the opportunity to take the set.
Now it was time to dig deep and avoid falling apart. He responded well on serve, firing a few aces to stay afloat. But he looked on the edge, and disaster nearly struck in the eighth game, when he went down 0-40 before bravely holding serve, though he seemed physically spent.
That’s when Svajda handed Kouame the break on a silver platter, making a string of unforced errors. Kouame was about to serve for the set, but a visit from the physio before he tried his luck cast doubt on what would happen next. That doubt was quickly erased as he held to love in a burst of energy to level the match at one set all. Clearly, the young Frenchman had plenty of fight left in him.
On his knees, then down to his knees
And that was no exaggeration: after a trip to the locker room, the Frenchman came back looking refreshed, despite having seemed on the brink, and broke his rival at the start of the third set.
Even if he didn’t look particularly fresh, he was solid on his own serve and chose not to overexert himself on Svajda’s service games. That strategy nearly backfired in the sixth game, where he hit three double faults, saved four break points, but managed to stay in front.
The physio became his best ally, and he was surviving thanks to his serve alone. In rallies, he could barely move, clearly suffering from cramps. All that was left was one last push to serve for the match, against an opponent who seemed out of ideas.
But nothing came easy, even with gifts from the other side: a double fault on his first match point, before a final unforced error from a completely lost Svajda. 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, Moise Kouame won his very first ATP main draw match at just 17!
He thus earns the right to face Jiri Lehecka in the second round. But for now, let’s just applaud a new talent on the world tennis stage.