French players Perricard, Van Assche have reached the final round of qualifying for Wimbledon

It was a French affair in the Wimbledon qualifiers on Wednesday as Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and 20-year-old Luca Van Assche edged closer to the main draw.

Coach Perricard defeated fellow countryman Antoine Escoffier 7-6(5), 6-2 after hitting 20 aces in the second qualifying round while Van Assche survived three setters, defeating Australia’s Li Tu 7-5, 3-6, 7-6. (10-7) to proceed further.

Top-ranked Coach Perricard is as high as No. 59 in this week’s PIF ATP Rankings, but at the May 20th Wimbledon main draw cutoff, the 6’8″ player was World No. 117. That week, Coach Perricard continued his dream run, winning the tournament from home in Lyon to claim his first ATP Tour title.

Mpetshi Perricard next heads for his first grass court draw when he faces local Maxime Janvier in the third round. Van Assche meets World No. 10 former and fellow Frenchman Lucas Pouille.

Two other former Top 10 players, Richard Gasquet and David Goffin, advanced on Wednesday. Gasquet cruised past Alexis Galarneau 6-1, 6-0 in 49 minutes and Belgian Goffin beat Yasutaka Uchiyama 7-6(4), 6-4.

American Maxime Cressy dropped five points after his first match to beat Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante 7-6(9), 6-3 and 2022 quarterfinalist Cristian Garin beat Tomas Barrios Vera 2-6 , 6-2, 6-0. Kazakh Beibit Zhukayev eliminated Next Gen ATP Finals champion Hamad Medjedovic 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-4.

Second seed Hugo Grenier won 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 over Croatian Dino Prizmic, who took Novak Djokovic’s match at the Australian Open as a qualifier. Third Zizou Bergs, fourth James Duckworth and fifth Lloyd Harris also reached the third qualifying round.