Francesca Schiavone, the 2010 French Open champion, was also eliminated, losing to Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 6-4.
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Petra Kvitova recovered from being on the brink of a shock defeat against Danka Kovinic to advance to the second round on a rain-affected first day of the French Open.
If, on the other hand, it’s the Williams who has shown some signs of vulnerability in the first few months of the year, then they might just have a sniff.
He arrives in the French capital with a 37-3 record but on the back of a loss to Murray in the Italian Open final.
Sunday’s first-round men’s play features fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan, No. 8 Milos Raonic of Canada and big-hitting Australian Nick Kyrgios, while on the women’s side, No. 5 Simona Halep of Romania, 11th-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova – last year’s runner-up – and 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova are playing. “I think that from the experience which I have already, I still can believe that I still can win it. Even if she’s serving for the match”. “Like, wow, of all titles, that was insane that I was able to win this one previous year”.
While he served 10 aces, Groth also made nine double faults as he failed to unsettle a rock-solid Nadal under threatening skies.
As one of the most attractive ATP World Tour 500 tournaments, this year’s China Open will see a strong draw again as Djokovic, Murray and Nadal will all appear in the Diamond Stadium in Beijing, according to the organizing committee. “I had the impression that we’d reached the end of what we could do professionally together”, Mauresmo said in an interview with L’Equipe magazine. “I know (it’s going to) be hard to have breaks”. She started to serve well, as well, and I missed my serve a lot.
Wearing a fluorescent yellow shirt and shoes, defending champion Stan Wawrinka is up against Lukas Rosol on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Heavy rain meant that only ten matches could be completed on the opening day of the tournament, with officials eventually suspending play for the day at 17:30 BST.
“I watched some highlights of the final”.
“I’m not thinking too much that I won the first grand slam of the year because every tournament starts from zero”.
Murray is seeded second for the first time at Roland Garros and will face a qualifier in his first match.
The Czech said: “T he conditions weren’t really easy today”.
The 11th seed, who now takes on Golubic in round two, broke six times and took advantage of 27 unforced errors from her opponent to ease through.
The last man to hold the four most prestigious tennis titles simultaneously was Rod Laver, all the way back in 1969, when he pulled off a true Grand Slam, winning all in the same year.
Clay may not be her best surface but the former world No 1 is seeded to meet Williams in the quarter-final and has the belief to beat her.
“So I do believe that I have improved, and I’m still improving”.
“I wanted… payback”, Rosol said. And how’s the weather looking?
“I have thought about that”, she said.
“I like him, because he’s arrogant and sure of himself….”
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If she’s healthy, it’s likely she’ll win.
