MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The pragmatic pro in Gael Monfils would have liked to claim his first-round victory in straight sets against rising French compatriot Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard at the Australian Open.

The entertainer instinct in him was very valuable as he made it in five games.

In Tuesday’s duel between 38-year-old Monfils and 21-year-old Mpetshi Perricard, age, experience and endurance outweighed strength and youth – helping to undo one of the greatest serves in tennis.

Days after becoming the oldest player to win an ATP Tour title by defeating Zizou Bergs in the final in Auckland, New Zealand, Monfils wasted match points in the third set and on Mpetshi Perricard’s serve in the fifth before finally losing at 7 :6 finished (7), 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-4 victory.

Monfils said he usually tries to avoid thinking about age differences with his competitors, “but I can tell you that tomorrow morning I will feel more like 48 than 38.”

“I know… I can be twice the guy’s age sometimes. I have, yes, I think, 21 years of career behind me and he is 21 years old, Giovanni,” he added. “Of course there are numbers, but I’m struggling, so I try not to memorize numbers.”

Monfils and Mpetshi Perricard entered the game at opposite ends of their career spectrum but share a passion for their sport. Both occasionally use shots between the legs during rallies – in one case, both in the same rally in the fourth set tiebreaker – and sometimes take the unconventional approach to scoring points.

With a career record of 34-18 at the Australian Open, where he reached the quarterfinals in 2016 and 2022, Monfils had the advantage over one player in his debut at Melbourne Park.

Mpetshi Perricard had not advanced past the first round at any major other than Wimbledon (where he reached the fourth round as a lucky loser last year) but was seeded 30th in 2024 after a breakout year that included two titles.

Monfils, who has won more Grand Slam singles matches than any other Frenchman, now also has a win-loss record of 20-19 in five-set matches.

Against Mpetshi Perricard, he failed to hit a break point in five sets and made what is widely regarded as the best second serve in tennis. He converted two of twelve break chances.

But he also had 18 double faults, including one when he served for the match in the third set and another on a match point in the third set tiebreak that let his younger rival back into the game and extended it by 1 1/2 hours.

The two then cooled down and stretched together in the locker room.

“Sometimes on the bench I say to myself: ‘He’s not 38,'” said Mpetshi Perricard. “Physically I don’t think he’s 38, but yeah, I mean I have to be better in some way to win a match like that. I’m still young. I can still learn.”

There were some other dramatic five-set matches, with fifth seed and tempestuous Daniil Medvedev, a former US Open champion and three-time finalist in Australia, defeating Grand Slam newcomer Kasidit Samrej 6-2, 4 :6, 3-6, 6 defeated -1, 6-2 and No. 13 Holger Rune defeated Zhang Zhizhen 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

No. 4 Taylor Fritz, runner-up at the US Open and ATP Finals and part of the U.S. team that won the United Cup last week, needed less than two hours for a 6-2, 6-0, 6-3 victory via Jenson Brooksby.

No. 8 Emma Navarro needed 3 hours and 20 minutes to recover from a 5-3 deficit in the third set to defeat fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5) in the women’s first round ), to beat 7:5.

In contrast, sixth seed Elena Rybakina defeated 16-year-old Emerson Jones 6-1, 6-1 and No. 9 Daria Kasatkina advanced in straight sets.

Navarro, a semifinalist at the US Open last year, described her victory as “one of the more unique matches I’ve played in a long time – I guess it just depended a lot on my courage, my toughness and my fight.”

Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, won 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) over No. 26 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova to set up a second-round match against Amanda Anisimova.

In her first match since November, the 22-year-old British player made 15 double faults, made 30 unforced errors and won just 30% of the points on her second serve. But in the big moments she was good enough.

“I am very proud of how I fought and how I handled certain situations in this fight,” Raducanu said.

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