Moldova’s Radu Albot, who qualified for the final of Roland Garros for the first time, was close to producing a huge surprise in the first round of the competition. He was yet beaten by France’s Benoit Paire, who takes the 21st position in the ATP rankings, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, IPN reports.

Albot managed to win the fourth set by 6-1, but lost the decisive set by 4-6. Ranked 137th in the world, Moldova’s best tennis player qualified for the final after scoring three victories in the qualifying rounds, against Spain’s Pere Riba (221nd), Sweden’s Christian Lindell (266th) and Andrei Golubev of Kazakhstan (209th).

Radu Albot last year gave the greatest performance for the Moldovan tennis, also at Roland Garros. He then qualified for the quarterfinals of the doubles, together with Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic.