Marc-Andrea Huesler maintained his good start to the year Tuesday with first-round victory at the Open Sud de France – Montpellier, but not before he was given a thorough test by emerging #NextGenATP Frenchman Luca Van Assche.
The Swiss lefty arrived at the ATP 250 event off the back of notching victories for Switzerland against Germany’s Oscar Otte and Alexander Zverev in the weekend’s Davis Cup Qualifiers. Huesler was made to dig deep by the 18-year-old World No. 145 Van Assche in southern France, however, where he fended off five of six break points in his 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win.
“Obviously he’s very young. He’s 18, [but] already Top 150, so he’s a great player” said Huesler in his on-court interview after booking a second-round clash against top seed Holger Rune. "I saw that in the second set especially. He had a great phase there, where he wasn’t missing and [was] making my life really difficult. I’m very happy that I was able to come through this round.”
The World No. 49 Huesler's serve pulled him through tough moments against an opponent playing just his third tour-level match. The 26-year-old fired 13 aces and won 86 per cent (38/44) of points behind his first delivery to move to 6-2 for the 2023 season.
“It’s always different, every tournament starts from scratch,” said Huesler, when asked whether his Davis Cup heroics had boosted his confidence ahead of the Van Assche clash. “Today I felt the pressure was a bit more on my side because obviously I want to win, I want to start off the year well indoors as well. I’m really happy I got it done.”
Huesler carries a 2-0 ATP Head2Head series lead into his clash with Rune in Montpellier. Both the pair's previous meetings came in 2022, when Huesler clinched straight-sets victories in Bastad and then in the Sofia championship match to claim his maiden tour-level crown.
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