(VIDEO) “You wanna go outside?” Pedro Martinez confronts teenage rival after French Open qualifier

The duel between Pedro Martinez Portero and Rei Sakamoto in French Open qualifying almost ended with both going at each other in a tense exchange after their first-round match. The Spaniard – 24th seed – showed all his anger towards his rival and even offered to ‘meet outside’ to settle their issues.

Martinez (No. 141) arrived as the favourite for the qualifying opener. The former top-40 player and experienced clay-court specialist faced 19-year-old Sakamoto (No. 152), the 2024 Roland Garros junior doubles runner-up. The Japanese player is still outside the top 150 and has yet to feature in a Grand Slam main draw or in a Masters 1000 main draw on clay.

The match was dominated by the Spaniard, who showed his greater adaptation to the surface to take the victory with 7 breaks from 12 opportunities, against only 4 breaks from Sakamoto, in a true battle of exchanged breaks. The Japanese player committed as many as 36 unforced errors – which ended up making the difference against only 9 from Martinez.

However, the attention was stolen by the tense exchange at the end of the match, in which even the chair umpire had to intervene. After the handshake at the net – following the Spaniard’s 6-2, 7-5 victory – the experienced 29-year-old player could be seen repeatedly reproaching his rival, while Sakamoto tried to give explanations, but without paying the same attention as the heated Spaniard.

“You wanna go outside?” Martinez could be heard telling the young teenager at the end of the match, showing all his frustration after his debut in Paris.

The victory sends Martinez into the second round of qualifying, where he will face British player Arthur Fery – who comes from defeating Elias Ymer in his debut. The winner will play for the chance to reach the main draw against either Emilio Nava or Thiago Seyboth Wild.