David Goffin Defeated in Return After Three and a Half Months

TThree and a half months after his last official match, David Goffin failed to make a victorious return to competition at the Open Pau Pyrénées, the Challenger 125 tennis tournament played indoors on a hard surface rewarded to the tune of 203,900 euros, Monday evening in France.

Benefiting from an invitation and ranked 5th seed, the 35-year-old from Liège, 117th in the world, was beaten in the first round by the Italian Giulio Zeppieri, 154th in the ATP, in three sets: 7-6 (8/6), 5-7, 6-1. The match point was decided after 2h12 of play.

The best Belgian player in history (former world No.7) had not played a competitive match since October 26 and his retirement in the second round of qualifying for the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris against the Argentinian Francisco Comesana. A sore knee was the reason for this new long withdrawal from the courts.

After missing four chances to take the 24-year-old Italian’s serve in the 7th game of the initial set, Goffin made the break and led 5-6 but failed to conclude, Zeppieri broke him and obtained the right to play the deciding game. In this one, the Belgian missed the opportunity to win the set at 5/6 and conceded the next three points and the set 7-6 (8/6) after 58 minutes.

On his momentum, the Roman left-hander, who made 16 aces and 43 winning points in total against 7 and 23 for Goffin, went to 2-0. With his back to the wall, Goffin tightened his game and won the next five games (2-5). Zeppieri didn’t give up. At 5-5, the Belgian N.4 found the resources and equalized with one set all (5-7).

The last round proved too much for the veteran who found himself trailing 4-0 and had to lose 6-1.

Two other Belgians are participating in the singles event in Béarn, Raphaël Collignon (ATP 69), ranked 1st seed, and Alexander Blockx (ATP 103), seeded N.3, both inherited a player who played in the qualifications. Collignon will start against the German Patrick Zahraj (ATP 248) and Blockx will face the French Clément Tabur (ATP 213). It will be a rematch of the round of 16 of the ATP 250 in Metz last year. After three tie-breaks, the Rémois won the last 8/6.