Hamilton, Yorston into maiden French Open quarter-finals on marathon Day 1
Seeds Long and Williams advance through first round but drop sets
The French Open has kicked off with a bang, with both Vaughan Hamilton and Benedict Yorston qualifying for their first Open quarter-finals having both survived three hour epics at Paris on Sunday. Meanwhile, the fifth and sixth seeds Lewis Williams and Darren Long also advanced, despite each dropping the third set, with the last match finishing nearly 12 hours after the first started.
The main draw matches began with the match between the unseeded amateur Benedict Yorston and qualifier Clément Depreeuw, both making their tournament debuts. Both players played with pan-handle forehand technique from balls from the back wall, which meant their shots sat up with vicious spin on the Paris court. The match was therefore about who could retrieve better, as the rallies were long and drawn out. Depreeuw’s flat-batted backhand volley was his biggest weapon, but Yorston was adept at keeping the ball close to the side wall and forcing the error.
Having won the first set comfortably, Yorston dropped off his intensity going into the second which allowed Depreeuw to start to establish a foothold. From there, the match descended into a scrappy dog-fight. Each point was tough, with few easy winners on offer. Having trailed the majority of the set, Yorston missed a chance for a 5/4 lead with an untimely double fault. Instead, Depreeuw took the game after a long deuce exchange. Depreeuw then sealed the hour-long set winning the next game to love despite repeated interruptions from a pair of infants in the galleries.
Depreeuw carried his confidence into the third set, becoming more and more aggressive in his strokeplay and putting Yorston further onto the back foot. The Brit had to demonstrate all of his defensive prowess to keep in the match, looking best when he was moving up the court and generating angles. However mid-way through the set, Depreeuw’s attack waned, as Yorston once again established the control of the play. Hazard chases and galleries were common, with frequent changes of ends pushing the match well beyond the three hour mark. After cleaning up the third set, Yorston had Depreeuw’s attack neutralized, quickly establishing himself in the fourth set with an unassailable lead.
Running over an hour and a half behind schedule, the second match was between Darren Long and Max Trueman. Going into the match, there was a question mark around Trueman’s form, having played just two competitive matches in 2025 to date and having not played outside America in over 18 months, instead training and working intensively under Tim Chisholm in Tuxedo. The pace of play was much higher than the first match, as both players were eager to test the quality of their serving against the quality of their opponent’s force. Both players were also hitting plenty on target, but Long’s volley defences were the deciding factor as he was able to keep putting the ball back into play until Trueman overreached at a shot.
Going into the second set, there were more floor rallies than before, though both players were still keen to take a pot shot at an opening if it was on offer. Long stuck with his now familiar railroad-only strategy, getting balls to bite back sharply into the battery wall. However, Long exposed himself to double faults on his second serve. Indeed, it was Trueman who scored the tournament’s first railroad winning gallery, midway through the third set. Long was the stronger player across the second set, but Trueman never gave in, stealing the third set after a late break, only just defending chase 1 on his first set point.
Long went into the fourth set with a streak of determination having just been two games away from the match. He won the first seven points of the set before Trueman struck back with a winning gallery to beat a hazard chase of 2. Trueman then won 9 of the next 10 as his confidence was growing while Long’s was diminishing. A disgruntled, no-nonsense Long then emerged, eager to put the match to bed. He raced through the last four games, until he reached match point with a second gallery chase to defend. After a overhand volley onto the tambour sent Trueman racing around the corners and boasting out of trouble, Long’s next volley spun up off the high main wall, onto the high back wall then kicked off both the back and side penthouses before running flush up the battery wall towarrds the net with Trueman in a helpless pursuit. Long dropped his racket and sunk his head into his hands before acknowledging his victory and shaking hands.
The third match of the day saw battle between the rising stars Vaughan Hamilton and Henry Henman. Their styles blended to create a match of great attacking flair. Both were getting the Paris court to cut but had to impart heavy spin to do so. Through the first set, Hamilton maintained a small edge, his larger pool of experience able to pressure the inaccuracies in Henman’s game.
After dropping the first set, Henman’s aggressive cut shots, where he would throw himself at the ball, were starting to pay off, building a lead in the second set. Hamilton was not perturbed, levelling the set at 3-all by throwing in some high paced and accurate forces of his own. Hamilton then missed a high back wall volley and blasted a ball from the gutter out of the court into the side galleries, and his temper only flared further over the following points, culminating in him tossing his racket on the floor. Henman was trying to capitalise but Hamilton kept belting the ball harder and harder at him. With the two evenly matched shot for shot, the set went to a deciding game. Henman took the lead with a Federer-esque ‘tweener running backwards from the net, before seeing three set points go begging as Hamilton recovered to deuce. Henman won it on his fourth set point as Hamilton sent the ball out of court on the high back wall, chucking his racket on the floor in disgust for a second time.
Hamilton maintained his composure better in the third set, fizzing cut shots into Henman’s backhand but with the court providing enough pop for Henman to stay in the rally. Hamilton held a two-game lead, but it never seemed secure, as Henman battled back for every point. At 5/3 up, Hamilton dived in the battery wall, having to take a few seconds to recompose himself. It didn’t do him harm, going on to secure a crucial 2-1 lead.
Hamilton lost the length of his shots going into the fourth set, hitting the dedans penthouse and high back wall, with Henman comfortably chasing the loopy balls up to the net and killing them. Once he was 0/3 down, Hamilton’s willingness to fight deteriorated, allowing Henman to wrap up the final few games of the set with ease and send the match into a fifth set. Once there, Henman continued his run of momentum, quickly winning the first couple of games. before Hamilton started to fight back once again. 2-all passed, then 3-all, with the match rapidly running out of road. Finally, a break fell the way of Hamilton, earning himself a 5/3 lead. A couple of knicks from Henman prevented Hamilton from seeing any match points in the ninth game, with the spectator galleries having to talk down the marker from awarding a match point to Hamilton in error. By the tenth game, both players were disputing the marker’s calls. At deuce, Hamilton served two long railroads for hazard chases, then on the change of ends managed to find galleries to win both and the match.
The final matchup of the day — now running three and a half hours behind schedule — saw local amateur Nicolas Victoir take on Leamington’s Lewis Williams. While Victoir could do damage with his penchance for dedans hitting and his long arms helping recover balls low to the floor late, Williams had the consistency and tactical nous to be winning the longer rallies. He was able to find his range on the force too, narrowly missing Victoir in the first game of the second set as the lanky Frenchman ducked for cover. Williams never felt any scoreboard pressure across the first two sets despite Victoir grabbing a handful of games. In the third set, Williams relaxed a little too much, letting a few too many errors into his game. Victor built a three game lead, which Williams was slowly starting to close down but ran out of road. By the fourth set, Williams was once again in control, pushing on to a well-deserved victory.
Play continues on Monday with the remaining first round matches, including the four top seeds entering the tournament for the first time, with the quarter-final matches following on Tuesday.
Match results:
11:00 AM: Benedict Yorston def Clément Depreeuw (Q) 6/2 4/6 6/3 6/3
1:00 PM: Darren Long (6) def Max Trueman 6/3 6/2 4/6 6/2
3:00 PM: Vaughan Hamilton def Henry Henman 6/3 5/6 6/3 1/6 6/4
5:00 PM: Nicolas Victoir lost to Lewis Williams (5) 1/6 3/6 6/4 2/6
Order of play for Monday (all times CEST):
12:00 PM: Nick Howell (1) vs Will Flynn
2:00 PM: Jack Josephs (Q) vs Steve Virgona (2)
5:00 PM: Bertie Vallat vs Robert Shenkman (4)
6:00 PM: Leon Smart (3) vs Levi Gale