18-year-old Bennani is the youngest Moroccan to win an ATP Tour match

Morocco had been waiting eight years for an ATP Tour match winner — and two arrived in the space of a few hours on Monday at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech.

Home wild cards Karim Bennani and Taha Baadi delivered a breakthrough day for Moroccan tennis at the clay-court ATP 250, where they each claimed their maiden ATP Tour victories. The 18-year-old Bennani produced a standout performance to upset Quentin Halys 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 in his first tour-level appearance outside of Davis Cup after Baadi set the tone by defeating Aleksandar Vukic 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.

“I don’t know what to say. I still can’t believe what just happened,” Bennani, the World No. 731, said in his on-court interview. “Thank you to the amazing Moroccan crowd, my coaches, my parents… I’m just really happy with the win.”

Baadi, 24, had opened Monday’s main-draw action by becoming the first Moroccan player to record an ATP Tour win since 2018. With his victory, he has risen 109 places to No. 478 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. Not long after, Bennani followed by making history of his own, becoming the youngest Moroccan man to win a tour-level match.

Both players now turn their attention to the second round, where Baadi is set to face third seed Corentin Moutet in their first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting, while Bennani will take on Yannick Hanfmann.

The eighth-seeded Hanfmann moved past Jesper de Jong 7-6(6), 6-4 in one hour, 41 minutes. He won 91 per cent (39/43) of first-serve points, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to score his eighth tour-level win of the season.

Adding to the home interest, Bennani’s older brother, 19-year-old Reda Bennani — the third Moroccan wild card in the draw — is scheduled to play Mattia Bellucci on Tuesday, giving the Marrakech crowd yet another storyline to rally behind.