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Marrakech
World No. 731 Bennani, No. 587 Baadi finish eight-year Moroccan wait in Marrakech
18-year-old Bennani is the youngest Moroccan to win an ATP Tour match
March 30, 2026
Grand Prix Hassan II
Karim Bennani, 18, is the youngest Moroccan to win an ATP Tour match.
By ATP Employees
Morocco had been ready eight years for an ATP Tour match winner — and two arrived within the house of some hours on Monday on the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech.
House wild playing cards Karim Bennani and Taha Baadi delivered a breakthrough day for Moroccan tennis on the clay-court ATP 250, the place they every claimed their maiden ATP Tour victories. The 18-year-old Bennani produced a standout efficiency to upset Quentin Halys 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 in his first tour-level look outdoors of Davis Cup after Baadi set the tone by defeating Aleksandar Vukic 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
A second he gained’t overlook 😤
One other wild card magic in Marrakech as Bennani downs Halys in fashion 👏#GrandPrixHassanII pic.twitter.com/UxQSfMgLM2
— ATP Tour (@atptour) March 30, 2026
“I don’t know what to say. I nonetheless can’t imagine what simply occurred,” Bennani, the World No. 731, mentioned in his on-court interview. “Thanks to the wonderful Moroccan crowd, my coaches, my mother and father… I’m simply actually pleased with the win.”
Baadi, 24, had opened Monday’s main-draw motion by turning into the primary Moroccan participant to file an ATP Tour win since 2018. Along with his victory, he has risen 109 locations to No. 478 within the PIF ATP Stay Rankings. Not lengthy after, Bennani adopted by making historical past of his personal, turning into the youngest Moroccan man to win a tour-level match.
Each gamers now flip their consideration to the second spherical, the place Baadi is ready to face third seed Corentin Moutet of their first Lexus ATP Head2Head assembly, whereas Bennani will tackle Yannick Hanfmann.
The eighth-seeded Hanfmann moved previous Jesper de Jong 7-6(6), 6-4 in a single hour, 41 minutes. He gained 91 per cent (39/43) of first-serve factors, based on Infosys ATP Stats, to attain his eighth tour-level win of the season.
Including to the house curiosity, Bennani’s older brother, 19-year-old Reda Bennani — the third Moroccan wild card within the draw — is scheduled to play Mattia Bellucci on Tuesday, giving the Marrakech crowd yet one more storyline to rally behind.
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