{"id":47456,"date":"2026-05-21T08:30:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/gbs-toby-samuel-wins-one-win-from-grand-slam-debut-at-french-open\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T08:30:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T12:30:47","slug":"gbs-toby-samuel-wins-one-win-from-grand-slam-debut-at-french-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/gbs-toby-samuel-wins-one-win-from-grand-slam-debut-at-french-open\/","title":{"rendered":"GB&#8217;s Toby Samuel wins one win from Grand Slam debut at French Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0520%2Fr1661038_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=570&amp;format=jpg, https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0520%2Fr1661038_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=1140&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0520%2Fr1661038_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=375, https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0520%2Fr1661038_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"\/><\/source><\/picture><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Britain&#8217;s Toby Samuel is one win away from making his Grand Slam main draw debut at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old from Dorset defeated Belgian veteran David Goffin 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 in the second qualifying round at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n<p>Samuel was outside the top 1,000 a year ago, but has soared to No. 159 in the rankings, and his only previous Grand Slam experience was at Wimbledon qualifying in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>At that time, he lost in the second round, but in a fierce battle that lasted 2 hours and 22 minutes, he recovered from a set down and took another step forward.<\/p>\n<p>The contest was held at the Suzanne Lenglen, the second-largest arena at Roland Garros, and drew a raucous crowd, most of them cheering for Goffin, who is set to retire at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>French Open players plan media protest over prize share<\/strong><br \/>&#8211; <strong>French Open 2026: How to watch, schedule, prize money, Brit Watch<\/strong><br \/>&#8211; <strong>Coco Gauff brings new thinking to French Open defense<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;First of all, it was an honor to play against David at the last French Open,&#8221; Samuel said in an on-court interview.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You are an inspiration to all tennis players around the world. It was amazing to share the court with you. It was the craziest atmosphere I have ever been a part of.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Samuel will face Peru&#8217;s Gonzalo Bueno for a spot in the main event, but Harriet Dart and Jay Clark were disappointed in losing in the second round.<\/p>\n<p>Dart, the only British woman to qualify, lost to Spain&#8217;s Leyre Romero Gormaz 6-1, 6-4, while Clarke lost to France&#8217;s Thomas Forel 6-4, 6-3.<\/p>\n<p>Felix Gil also came from behind to beat Alex Molkan and is now just one win away from advancing to the main draw.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old achieved a thrilling 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (11-9) victory and will face Kylian Jacquet in the third qualifying round.<\/p>\n<p>In the second qualifying round, Arthur Ferry also fell and lost to Pedro Mart\u00ednez, while a bye between Jan Koynski and Pierre-Hugues Herbert allowed the Frenchman to advance to the next round.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, British number one Cameron Norrie lost to Argentina&#8217;s Mariano Navone 6-4, 6-4 at the Geneva Open, and will head into the French Open on a third straight losing streak.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britain&#8217;s Toby Samuel is one win away from making his Grand Slam main draw debut at Roland Garros. The 23-year-old from Dorset defeated Belgian veteran David Goffin 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 in the second qualifying round at Roland Garros. Samuel was outside the top 1,000 a year ago, but has soared to No. 159 in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[706,151,9233,36,32,7382,37,24,9234,30,52],"class_list":["post-47456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-debut","tag-french","tag-gbs","tag-grand","tag-open","tag-samuel","tag-slam","tag-tennis","tag-toby","tag-win","tag-wins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}