Five French (Grégoire Barrère, Richard Gasquet, Adrian Mannarino, Ugo Humbert and Gaël Monfils) and a Frenchwoman (Caroline Garcia) enter directly into the main draw of the Cincinnati tournament. There will be two more: Arthur Fils and Corentin Moutet, who came out of qualifying brilliantly.
Arthur Fils (19, 46th in the world) quietly dominated (6-3, 6-3) on Sunday the Chinese Zhang Zhizhen (63rd), whom he had already beaten on hard indoor at the Challenger de Pau in 2022 and on clay of Lyon in May. The Essonne, protected by Laurent Raymond, easily won in the first round (6-1, 6-1) against the American Brandon Holt (231st).
Moutet (24, 69th in the world) paid him (6-4, 6-4) the German Daniel Altmaier (52nd). The Parisian had also beaten a player ranked higher than him on Saturday, the Italian Matteo Arnaldi (66th).
Son and Moutet may face John Isner, Ugo Humbert, Lloyd Harris, Hubert Hurkacz, Emil Ruusuvuori, Francisco Cerundolo or Lorenzo Sonego as first-round opponents.
The three French women beaten
Less success on the side of the three French Varvara Gracheva, Alizé Cornet and Diane Parry, who will not be in the final draw in Cincinnati, unless they are drafted as lucky-losers. They were heavily beaten in the last qualifying round, Gracheva (40th) by the Spaniard Cristina Bucsa, 85th (6-3, 6-2), Cornet (60th) by the American Ann Li, 192nd (6-3, 6-3), and Parry (77th) by the Czech Linda Noskova, 52nd (6-3, 6-2).
