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At 17, Moise Kouame becomes the youngest winner of a Grand Slam match with French Open win against Marin Cilic.

French teenager Moise Kouame announced himself on the Grand Slam stage in emphatic fashion, ⁠beating former US Open champion Marin Cilic 7-6(4) 6-2 6-1 at the French Open to become the youngest man to win a major main-draw match in 17 years.

Handed a wildcard by organisers, the 17-year-old French teen ⁠looked entirely unfazed on Court Simonne Mathieu in the first-round match on Tuesday as he made his Grand Slam debut against a player 20 years his senior and a former world number three.

Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion and a Roland Garros semifinalist in 2022, arrived in Paris ranked 46th in the world but was outplayed by the ‌fearless teenager, whose speed in defence and deft drop shots repeatedly drew applause from the crowd.

Ranked 318th, Kouame edged a tense opening set in a tiebreak after saving two set points before taking control of the match.

“It wasn’t easy. I always try to stay in the present moment and not think too much about the score. Today I managed to do that really well,” Kouame said on court.

Kouame did not concede a break of serve throughout the contest as he sealed victory in straight ⁠sets.

At 17 years and two months old, Kouame became the youngest player ⁠to win a Grand Slam match since Australia’s Bernard Tomic reached the 2009 Australian Open second round at the age of 16.

He is also the youngest player to advance past the first round at Roland Garros since Romania’s Dinu Pescariu achieved the feat ⁠in 1991 at 17 years and one month old.

“It’s a lot of emotion, it’s exceptional,” Kouame said. “Coming into this tournament, I didn’t really know what to ⁠expect. The team and I worked hard to be as ready ⁠as possible.”

The teenager, coached by former French player Richard Gasquet, claimed only the second main-tour win of his career after earning his first at the Miami Masters in March.

He will next face Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, who advanced after 20th seed Cameron Norrie retired ‌injured.

Kouame’s breakthrough run caps a rapid rise this season.

The Frenchman has won three ITF titles – the third tier of professional tennis – and received several wildcards on the main circuit, including at the Miami and Monte-Carlo ‌Masters.

“All ‌the experience I gained in Miami and Monte-Carlo probably helped me a little,” Kouame told reporters. “Technically, I felt pretty calm. I knew I was ready and I felt good mentally and physically.”

RIVALS star Emily Atack has revealed she was touched and sent inappropriate text messages by male co-stars when she was a teenager.

Speaking in a new interview with Grazia, she expressed: “I’ve done so many things; I’ve done 13 movies. I’ve worked on some incredible sets and really difficult ones.

“Where I was a teenager, I learned to accept that on certain sets things were going to happen – whether it was touching me, whispering things in my ear between takes when nobody was listening, or texting me outside of work hours with inappropriate things.

“I’ve been through it,” the 36-year-old admitted to the publication.

Her latest show, Rivals on Disney+ features plenty of raunchy scenes but Emily previously praised the use of intimacy co-ordinators on the sets.

Speaking about the use of them in September last year, the mum-of-one explained: “I’ve seen people roll their eyes about them and say, ‘I don’t need one.’

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“There’s a defensiveness about it, because they feel like they’re being accused of something they haven’t even done yet. 

“Intimacy coordinators are there for support if you feel uncomfortable, whether you’re a man or a woman.

“I’ve been sexually assaulted at work throughout my career, whether it’s on the actual set, or at a wrap party. 

“And since the #MeToo movement, it shows that people are listening and that there has to be a shift in behaviour on sets.” 

The actress, who plays Sarah Stratton, told Radio Times: “I’m really proud of the Rivals gang because, throughout my life, I haven’t felt safe all the time, and we’re all so respectful of each other.  

“We have to do a lot of sexual scenes and we’re very looked after — it’s a really positive thing.” 

Back in 2023, she was a part of the BBC Two documentary, Emily Atack: Asking For It?, which explored the devastating scale of online sexual harassment.

She uncovered the normalisation of cyber-flashing and addressed the societal tendency to blame victims for unwanted explicit messages.

Following the airing of the highly-praised documentary, Emily actively briefed MPs in Parliament to address loopholes regarding sexual harrasment.

Her advocacy helped secure legal protections in the Online Safety Act.

Emily rose to prominence in 2008 when she played Charlotte Hinchcliffe in The Inbetweeners.

As well as her acting work, she’s also made appearances on television shows including Dancing On Ice, I’m A Celebrity, Celebrity Juice and the new ITV quiz show Nobody’s Fool with Danny Dyer.

Outside of her career, she got engaged to materials scientist Dr Alistair Garner in July last year, with their wedding scheduled to happen this September.

The year before, she became a first-time mum when the couple welcomed their baby boy Barney into the world.

She wrote on instagram: “We have a beautiful son. Barney James Garner. All my dreams have come true”

The post featured a sweet black and white snap of Emily with Alistair and their new arrival lying on Emily’s chest.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), one of two acknowledged homosexuals in the House of Representatives, admitted Friday that he had employed a male prostitute as a personal aide, but he said that he fired him after learning that the congressman’s Capitol Hill apartment was being used as a house of prostitution.

Frank said he met the man, whom he identified as Steve Gobie, through an ad in a Washington gay newspaper in 1985 and paid to have sex with him. The Massachusetts congressman, who at the time had not made his public acknowledgement that he was gay, said he later hired Gobie as a chauffeur and housekeeper with the hope of reforming a troubled young man with a history of petty crime and prostitution.

‘I Was Victimized’

“I hired him out of a charitable impulse. I thought I was going to be a liberal who got involved directly with an individual who needed help,” Frank told reporters in Boston on Friday. “ . . . I was victimized. I misjudged his character.”

Frank was responding to a front page story Friday in the Washington Times headlined, “Sex Sold Out of Congressman’s House,” that included the young man’s description of his former relationship with Frank.

Frank said he paid Gobie about $20,000 a year in his own funds. According to the newspaper, the congressman wrote letters on Gobie’s behalf to Virginia probation authorities. Gobie was on probation after being convicted in 1982 of four felonies, including cocaine possession and production of obscene items involving juveniles.

In August, 1987, Frank said he fired Gobie and ended their relationship after his landlady alerted him to the prostitution business being run out of his basement apartment several blocks from the Capitol.

House Democratic leaders were quick to come to Frank’s defense.

Foley Offers Backing

“There is no more able, articulate and effective member of the House of Representatives than Barney Frank,” House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) said in a statement. “He has provided outstanding service to his constituency and the nation, and I’m absolutely confident he will continue to do so long after this matter has been forgotten.”

Despite Foley’s statement of support, several politicians raised the possibility that the House Ethics Committee may choose to investigate Frank’s conduct as unbecoming of a House member.

Just last month, Frank was one of three House members to ask the Ethics Committee to investigate sexual misconduct allegations against Rep. Gus Savage (D-Ill.). A Peace Corps worker has accused Savage of making sexual advances during an official trip to Zaire.

Frank said he intends to run for reelection next year and does not believe the Gobie incident would undermine his campaign. “I don’t believe it shows me as unethical,” he said. “I believe it shows me as gullible.”

Frank, who publicly acknowledged his homosexuality in 1987, has faced only token opposition in recent elections. Since 1980, he has represented a Massachusetts district that extends west from Boston’s Back Bay through the generally liberal, affluent suburbs of Brookline and Newton and then veers south to the blue collar, old textile towns such as Fall River.

In 1983, another Massachusetts Democratic congressman, Gerry E. Studds, admitted having sex with a male page employed by the House. His Cape Cod constituents also have continued to elect him overwhelmingly.

Dorothy Reichard, an aide to Frank in Boston, said the several dozen calls to his office have been overwhelmingly supportive. “I think people feel he’s an excellent congressman who’s done his job, even though he may have used poor judgment in this instance,” Reichard said.