Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard shows why he's been touted future Top 10 in maiden major win

Sebastian Korda stood at the back of Court 16 and shook his head. He mumbled and grumbled to himself. He sat down in his sideline chair, before getting up and walking to the other side of the net. He paced and grumbled some more.

It was easy to understand his frustration. Two days earlier, he had expected to play Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the first round. The Spaniard is no slouch, but Korda would have liked his chances. The American has a 2-0 record against Davidovich Fokina, and he beat him 6-1, 6-2 in Monte Carlo in April.

Beyond that, the 20th-seeded Korda had played some promising grass-court tennis over the past three weeks, reaching the final in s’Hertogenbosch, and the semis at Queen’s. His Wimbledon draw was equally promising; he had landed far from Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Novak Djokovic. The highest seed in his section, Andrey Rublev, lost today.

But as Korda stalked the back of the court, all of those auspicious things had vanished. Davidovich Fokina had pulled out with an injury, and was replaced by perhaps the last lucky loser anyone would want to face: the walking ace machine known as Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. Even worse, Korda had just watched Mpetshi Perricard save a set point with a mind-bogglingly self-assured, 130-m.p.h. second-serve ace down the T, and go on to steal the set from him, 8-6 in a tiebreaker.

Mpetshi Perricard’s name might be mouthful, but you might as well get used to saying it—and to seeing him belt serves past his opponents by the bucket full. He’s 20, he’s French, he’s 6-foot-8, he just cracked the Top 60, and two months ago he came out of qualifying to win his first title, in his hometown of Lyon. Mpetshi Perricard has been called the future of tennis by more than one close observer of the sport.

To understand why, you have to see him play. He may be the most athletic player of his height or above that we’ve seen so far. He combines that height with a smooth service motion and an explosive wrist snap. More than other serve-bots past, though, he also has a knockout forehand, a decent amount of speed, and a willingness to come to net. Interestingly, but perhaps unfortunately, he also has a one-handed backhand.

None of that, naturally, made Korda’s day. The two traded service holds and screaming winners for four rain-delayed sets. All four went to tiebreakers, and all four of those breakers were decided by two points or less. When they were over, the score stood at two-sets all. As close as the match was, the safe money likely would have been on Korda to win the fifth. He’s the more experienced player, he had just snuck through a 9-7 fourth-set tiebreaker, and last month at Roland Garros, Mpetshi Perricard, who had never won a main-draw match at a major before today, lost a similarly epic five-setter to David Goffin.

Despite all of that, it was Mpetshi Perricard who prevailed. As is often the case with a monster server, it took just a couple of moments of inspiration, combined with a nervous slip from his opponent, to put the match in Mpetshi Perricard’s hands. With Korda serving at 0-1 in the fifth, Mpetshi Perricard hit a running forehand pass; made a nice reflex backhand that landed near the baseline; and watched as Korda missed an easy forehand long at break point.

That was it. Mpetshi Perricard’s serve essentially did the rest. Down 0-30 at 2-0, he hit two service winners and an ace to hold. In the final game, he drilled three aces and a service winner. For the match, he had 51 aces, 93 winners, was 37 of 57 at net, and saved all 11 break points he faced.

Asked by Tennis Channel what he was thinking on those break points, Mpetshi Perricard had an admirably straightforward answer:

“Try not to lose the point,” he said with a laugh. “My game plan, I will serve up the T or out wide, and I will go to the net as quickly as I can.”

“I’m very proud of myself to win those key moments of the match.”

Mpetshi Perricard’s father was a semi-pro soccer player, but he says his mother is his hero, for supporting him when he left home in Lyon to live at the French federation’s training center in Paris.

After losing his final qualifying match last week, Mpetshi Perricard said he thought he would “never be able to play Wimbledon.” When he found  out he was a lucky loser, he said he “was very happy to be able to play at least one match at Wimbledon.”

Now he’ll get to play at least one more this year, against Yoshihito Nishioka; if he wins that, he might face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round.

Is Mpetshi Perricard the future? Is he more than an ace machine? His return will need work, but his athleticism should make him more than a new-model Milos Raonic or John Isner. In the one game where he broke Korda, he came up with two brilliant shots on the run, and finished another point at the net. His volleys will also need work, but he gets himself there more quickly and more often than a lot of other 6-foot-8 types of the recent past. With his steamroller serve, just a flash of brilliance here and there may be all he needs.

As for now, Mpetshi Perricard isn’t worrying about the future as much as he is savoring the present.

“The strawberries are nice,” he said of being at Wimbledon. “And the grass is amazing.”