Gale takes out Smart in gruelling French Open first round
Howell, Virgona & Shenkman untroubled in first round encounters
Levi Gale has won the biggest upset of the French Open so far, taking out third seed Leon Smart in a fiery and fiesty encounter at Paris on Monday. It marked the first time since the 2024 Australian Open that a top four seeded player has lost in the first round, and was Gale’s first win over a top-8 player. Meanwhile, the other top three seeds, Nick Howell, Steve Virgona and Robert Shenkman, progressed into the quarter finals unscathed.
The second day of first round matches kicked off with the only previous winner in the draw, Nick Howell, taking on debutant amateur Will Flynn. Howell took a few minutes to get fully warmed up, with the first game lasting through four deuces, but once he did, he was unstoppable. His cut-volley had Flynn immediately on the back foot in every rally, and when Howell forced, Flynn couldn’t find a volley off the middle of the strings. Once behind, Flynn started to wind up some forces of his own, but Howell was equal to the task. Even when Howell landed in trouble, he was able to muscle the ball back over and ask questions of Flynn again a few strokes later. By the third set, Flynn was losing the will to keep fighting back, slapping the ball as hard as he could at Howell but often missing into the net or high onto the penthouse for Howell to mop up. Howell completed the triple-bagel in just 56 minutes of play.
Next on was Steve Virgona, starting off his mission to complete his career grand slam with a match against qualifier Jack Josephs, who was making his main draw Open debut. Josephs impressed early on, crunching a pair of grilles from floated Virgona forehands to take the second game and had points for a small lead. But Virgona played himself into form, easily getting the better of the play the longer the rally lasted. Josephs never had an opportunity to exhibit any weapons from open play, instead relying on set pieces to earn his points. In those set pieces, he was quite effective, building up another couple of games before Virgona decided to shut things down by hitting three main wall dedans to wrap up the set.
Virgona was no-nonsense going into the second set, looking to finish the rallies as quickly as possible, ideally by the third stroke. Once his lead in the set was established, Virgona opted to play more experimentally, honing his lower-percentage shots in preparation for the later rounds. By the third set Virgona was in full flow, boasting and volleying his way through any situation leaving Josephs to cling on to the match for his life. As the match neared the end, Virgona was pushing it around for fun to test what the limits of Josephs’s ability were. Once satisfied, Virgona sealed the match with a main wall, setting himself up for a quarter-final against Benedict Yorston.
The evening session began with the two British amateurs Robert Shenkman and Bertie Vallat — their fourth meeting in the preceding 12 months. Vallat determined that, given his recent experiences, a high-paced game was the order of the day, looking to put Shenkman’s forehand volley under as much pressure as possible. But even when he did pressure Shenkman into an awkward defense, Vallat struggled to find an effective kill shot, with Shenkman able to work over the rally until Vallat spooned an easy return. Vallat’s retrieval was sound — including successfully reading two winning gallery ledges — but not threatening.
Vallat conceded the first set with a deliberate double fault to retain the serve going into the second. It didn’t do him much good, as his frustration with himself was growing point-by-point and threatened to boil over. Shenkman was a solid wall — his defensive game was reliable and his counterattacks were effective. The match became a battle of backhand exchanges, with Vallat backing off from his earlier forcing, but Shenkman was winning those contests, too. However, late in the set, Shenkman’s intensity dropped off. Sensing an opening, Vallat returned to his hard-hitting game, bringing himself into contention for the set. Not wanting to give away his hard work, Shenkman blasted a dedans at deuce at 4/3 letting out a big “c’mon.” It jolted him back into concentration, pushing on to win the set, despite Vallat hitting the tournament’s second railroad winning gallery in the process.
The contest was closest at the beginning of the third set, with long drawn out rallies being decided by minute variation of angles or marginal misreads of the tambour as neither could reliably find any openings. Shenkman was getting the better of the play, not by hitting outright winners but by staying in the fight until Vallat made an error. It was gruelling play, with Shenkman at one point keeling over on the floor in frustration at yet another net cord. Shenkman powered through the last few games to secure his spot in the quarter-finals.
With the galleries filling for the evening sponsor’s cocktail reception, the last match of the first round began with the closest match by handicap between third seed, Leon Smart, and Levi Gale. Serving was key, with the tempo of the reste determined by the response. Smart was utilising the full height of the Paris court for his high serves, jamming Gale against the back wall requiring the Prested professional to use his full strength to muscle the ball back over the net with little room to swing. Gale, meanwhile, was serving railroads which Smart was forcing with all his might, recent shoulder problems notwithstanding. Both strategies required strokeplay with little margin for error, making shot execution critically important.
Gale started the first set by building a 3/1 lead, before Smart’s service end aggression started to pay off, winning the next four games in a row. Gale’s forcing brought him back to 4/5. Smart had four set points at deuce in the tenth game, searching for a flush high serve to seal the deal, but missed by the barest of margins. Gale held firm under pressure, not cracking and not stepping back from his attacking style as he sent the set to an eleventh game decider. Smart took umbridge to Gale’s attempt at a straight force to beat chase 6 from well into the hazards — a shot that ended in the net but sent Smart ducking for cover — before winning his sixth set point with a back-wall nick. He continued the exchange of words through the short break between the sets as the players refuelled, while Gale gave him a cold shoulder.
The battle resumed heated as ever in the second set. Early in the set, Smart pulled off a successful main wall dedans while accidentally letting go of his racket and throwing it halfway across the court. There was no change in tactics, just a determination by both players to plough through as hard as they could. Neither player had more than a game advantage until the end of the set, where Gale held his nerve on set point to slot a dedans.
Two sets in, almost two hours in and no closer to determining a winner, the players took an extended break between sets. In the third set, Smart eeked out a 3/1 lead before Gale started to ground out points with a little more regularity. Smart faced trouble getting on top of Gale’s railroad, the latter stretching out a 5/4 lead before Smart took it to another eleventh game decider by charging the net to defend the hazard galleries. Gale, starting the game at the service end, earned a 40-0 lead before a long railroad sent him back the other end with a hazard chase. Though Gale couldn’t find the high back wall on the first set point, he drew a backhand error from Smart on the second.
Smart took another extended break before the fourth set, during which Gale stole the service end, having finished the previous set at the receiving end. Smart returned to the court looking defeated. He seemed unsure of what to serve, clutching at his previously injured shoulder, covering half a yard shorter in the court and making some strange decisions in his strokeplay. Nevertheless, Gale still had to fight for every point, as Smart’s desperado forcing was still proving dangerous. Gale smelled blood, serving in a number of nick railroads and a sweet volley to defend chase 2 to bring up his match points. Smart defended the first with a perfect caterpillar serve, but the second caterpillar clipped the penthouse giving Gale a chase 4. After Smart’s force went low, Gale turned to the crowd and threw a couple of fist pumps, lining up a quarter-final showdown against Lewis Williams.
Play continues on Tuesday with the singles quarter-finals. The doubles quarter- finals follow on Wednesday.
Match results:
12:00 PM: Nick Howell (1) def Will Flynn 6/0 6/0 6/0
2:00 PM: Jack Josephs (Q) lost to Steve Virgona (2) 3/6 1/6 2/6
5:00 PM: Bertie Vallat lost to Robert Shenkman (4) 0/6 3/6 3/6
7:00 PM: Leon Smart (3) lost to Levi Gale 6/5 4/6 5/6 2/6
Order of play for Tuesday (all times CEST):
12:00 PM: Nick Howell (1) vs Vaughan Hamilton
2:00 PM: Benedict Yorston vs Steve Virgona (2)
4:00 PM: Darren Long (6) vs Robert Shenkman (4)
7:00 PM: Levi Gale vs Lewis Williams (5)