Anne TRAN and Margot LAMBERT were close!
The Glaz Arena was crowded to watch the last French hopes of the Yonex French Open. The match was already historic on paper. First French women's doubles pair to reach the quarterfinals of a Super 750, Anne and Margot have no intention of stopping there. They get right into their match, competing eye-to-eye with two times world champions in 2018 and 2019. Unstoppable, they take control of the first set to lead 9/5. As the tension increases, the French make more mistakes, letting the Japanese get back into the match. A real battle starts, but the MATSUMOTO/NAGAHARA pair plays more precisely, more wisely. They take the first set 21/15, forcing Anne and Margot to perform a feat.
Far from being abandoned by their fans, the French pair set off again under the applauses. Despite another good start, they concede 6 consecutive points. With their backs against the wall, they throw all their energy into the battle and attack the Japanese to come back. 8/11, the gap at the break is not insurmountable and all hopes are allowed. Anne and Margot alternate between magic and errors. The Japanese consistency is edifying, but the French energy brings them back to 17/17 in a Glaz Arena ready to melt down. A lost challenge gives MATSUMOTO and NAGAHARA two match points. They win 21/18 and advance to the semi-finals. For the French pair, the step was too high, but the competition was great.
Despite their performance, Anne was disappointed: “It wasn't our best performance today. We weren't consistent enough, which is frustrating, but we need to raise our game against these pairs. [...] We had troubles getting into it and daring to do things at 100%. Even if these are top pairs, you have to dare to do things to the fullest, and that's what we didn't do today".
Margot managed to keep a positive review of the tournament: "It's still positive. We're still trying to win these matches against the big pairs. Today we didn't manage to find our level and it took us a while to get into the match.”
The Japanese will meet the winners of the JEONG/KIM (n°12, South Korea) match against KITITHARAKUL/PRAJONGJAI (n°11, Thailand).