Herbert Fights Back To Stun Medvedev At Roland Garros

Pierre-Hugues Herbert fell to the ground in celebration at Roland Garros on Monday afternoon following the biggest win of his career at a Grand Slam championship.

The 28-year-old, one of 18 Frenchmen in the draw, recovered from two-sets-to-love down for the first time against Russian No. 12 seed Daniil Medvedev in a 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 victory over three hours and 54 minutes.

“It was one of the best, for sure,” said Herbert. “Maybe, emotion-wise, maybe the best, yes. The atmosphere was incredible… The crowd was incredible, [a] very precious help. I used the crowd. They pushed me in difficult moments. When you're two sets down, it's very difficult. It's in part thanks to the crowd that I was able to win today.”

Herbert recovered from 0-2 down in the deciding set and broke Medvedev, a winner of 25 of his 36 matches this year, in the penultimate game en route to his seventh tour-level victory against a player in the Top 20 of the ATP Rankings (7-24 lifetime).

On Sunday, his long-time doubles partner, Nicolas Mahut, with whom he captured the Roland Garros doubles title in 2018, also fought back from 0-2 sets down to beat Italy No. 16 seed Marco Cecchinato. Read Report & Watch Highlights

The 28-year-old Herbert, who is focusing more on singles competition and rising up the ATP Rankings in 2019, will now face fellow Frenchman Benoit Paire, the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon champion (d. Auger-Aliassime) on Saturday, or Marius Copil of Romania in the second round.

Elsewhere, Croatian No. 13 seed Borna Coric, who has reached the third round on three occasions (2015-16 and 2018), worked his way past Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 51 minutes. The 22-year-old, who saved five match points against Philipp Kohlschreiber to win the 2017 Grand Prix Hassan II clay-court title, awaits the winner of South African Lloyd Harris and Lukas Rosol, a Czech lucky loser.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour http://bit.ly/2QoGU6o