Officially, he entered Sunday with the joint fastest serve of the tournament at 140 MPH, along with Ben Shelton. Official tournament statistics were unable to register serve speeds in his first two matches on Court 14 and Court 16, but in Lyon, he walloped a 151 MPH delivery against Hugo Gaston.
“I proved a lot to myself in matches in three, four, five sets,” said Mpetshi Perricard. “I hope to continue like this. I think I have the resources and that I can manage to maintain this level.
“I am very, very happy with what I showed.”
The form of such young, inexperienced players often varies in their early days, with matches on grass possibly turning into pick’ems if two hefty servers face off. But after his memorable first week at Wimbledon, one could understand why a French reporter asked how Mpetshi Perricard lost to world No. 225 Maxime Janvier in qualifying at nearby Roehampton.
“That’s tennis,” he replied. “You can lose against Janvier and you can win against Korda three days later. Against Janvier, I didn’t return very well. We said to ourselves that, now, we would have to change things on that aspect.”
