On the Suzanne-Lenglen court, under the eyes of ten thousand spectators hanging on to each of his shots, the 17-year-old from Sarcellois won a five-set match on Thursday, May 28 against the Paraguayan Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, after a super tie-break concluded 10 to 8. After the match, he said to the public by way of thanks: “I think that physically, you are even deader than me from screaming so much. » This Saturday, May 30, 2026, he will face the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo for a place in the round of 16.
A record of precocity
By winning against Zachary Svajda at the Miami Open, the Frenchman became the youngest player to win a Masters 1000 match since Rafael Nadal in 2003 in Hamburg, and the 4th youngest in history.
At Roland Garros, the parallel continued. By reaching the 3rd round at Porte d’Auteuil, Moïse Kouamé did better than Novak Djokovic, who had to wait until he was 18 years and 29 days old, and also better than Andy Murray (18 years and 36 days old). Only Nadal, at Wimbledon 2003, with 17 years and 20 days, did better. We have to go back to Thierry Tulasne at the US Open in 1980, 46 years earlier, to find such precocity in a young Frenchman.
A jump of 600 places in five months
In January 2026, Moïse Kouamé was ranked 833rd in the world. Far from the top places but still the youngest player in the ATP top 1,000. In Miami in March, he became the first player born in 2009 or later to win a match on the professional circuit. After two rounds at Roland-Garros, he is now 214th in the world, a jump of 600 places in five months. A victory this Saturday in the 3rd round on Saturday would propel him into the top 160.
A progression reminiscent of that recorded last year at Roland-Garros by Loïs Boisson. The young Frenchwoman dazzled France by reaching the semi-final, gaining 241 places in the WTA rankings in one week. Entering the tournament ranked 362nd in the world with an invitation from the organizers, she emerged number 120 in the world.
PSG fan, like Arthur Fils last year
Moïse Kouamé, a big fan of PSG, must play his third round against the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo on Saturday, the day of the Champions League final between PSG and Arsenal, which will kick off at 6 p.m. A coincidence that Moïse Kouamé would like to avoid. He slipped in with a smile that he wouldn’t mind playing in the morning. While remaining pragmatic: “If I play at the same time, I know the team will get the job done. »
In 2025, Arthur Fils experienced the same situation, with the PSG-Inter Milan final in the background during his 3rd round at Roland-Garros. He joked: “Maybe Rublev will ask to play in the evening just to annoy me. » He was finally scheduled during the day and was able to watch the final.
An “academician”, from Henin to Mouratoglou
Nothing in the training of Moïse Kouamé was left to chance. At 13, he decided to leave France to join Justine Henin’s academy in Belgium. The former world number 1 and seven-time Grand Slam winner publicly praised her ability to concentrate, listen and learn on the France Télévisions set. A year and a half later, he returned to France and joined Patrick Mouratoglou’s academy in Biot, in the Alpes-Maritimes.
Patrick Mouratoglou, former coach of Serena Williams, saw Coco Gauff (two Grand Slam titles) and Tsitsipás (two Grand Slam finals) pass through his academy. He is full of praise for his student: “He is one of the best talents I have had at the academy. What he does at 17 is not common. He is on track to be a great champion. »
Fallen into a family of tennis players, surrounded today by big names
It was by imitating one of their sisters that Michaël and Moïse Kouamé discovered tennis, before the older brother actually put a racket in the hands of the younger one, at the age of five. Behind this vocation, there is above all a mother, whose role was decisive. A night caregiver, she finances her sons’ first training sessions and moves the whole family to Paris, in the 15th arrondissement, to bring them closer to sports facilities. “The most important thing is that they are happy. I don’t want us to put pressure on them. We know that everything can stop… Or become a beautiful story,” she confides to Le Parisien.
Today, Daryl Monfils, Gaël’s younger brother, manages his interests as his agent, the British Liam Smith is his main trainer and Richard Gasquet his advisor. The former “musketeer” does not hide his ambitions for his protégé: “We need there to be French people who return to the top 10, it’s been a long time since that has been the case. We want France to once again become a major tennis nation. »
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