The American improves to 20-3 on the season and 56-11 lifetime at Roland Garros.
Advertisement
Agnieszka Radwanska made the most of Caroline Garcia’s struggles with her serve to reach the third round at the French Open.
PARIS Serena Williams wasted little time in demolishing Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova as the world number one kicked off the defence of her French Open title with a 6-2 6-0 victory on Tuesday. “You got to work it out”, Bouchard, tipped as the new queen of tennis not so long ago, said of her ongoing battle to rediscover the mental strength needed to survive in the higher echelons.
“I just love Roland Garros. But I’ll take the positives out of it, and I’m hoping I can progress as the tournament goes on”, said Djokovic. If Williams wins in Paris, she will equal that record, and may go on to equal the all-time record of 24 set by Margaret Court by the time Wimbledon and the US Open are done.
The German, 28, lost her opening matches at the Madrid and Rome tournaments and a shoulder injury ruled her out of Nuremberg last week.
Serena was joined in the third round by her older sister Venus Williams, who quickly closed out a 6-2 6-1 win over fellow U.S. player Louisa Chirico.
They played for 4 hours, 31 minutes – four times what it took for Nick Kyrgios, the 17th-seeded player from Australia, to beat Igor Sijsling 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. I’m very happy with what happens – win, lose, or draw.
TULSA, Okla. – Stanford’s Taylor Davidson fought off a match point for 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Oklahoma State’s Vladica Babic that gave the Cardinal a 4-3 win and their 18th NCAA women’s tennis championship on Tuesday.
Highlights on Friday at Roland Garros include (11) Lucie Safarova vs. (21) Sam Stosur, (2) Aggie Radwanska vs. (30) Barbora Strycova, (10) Petra Kvitova vs. Shelby Rogers, and the all-Russian (13) Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. (24) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The first-round match for the tournament favorite was over in the blink of an eye, but she had no problem with such a short time on court as she turns her attention to facing Teliana Pereira in Round 2.
Earlier, No. 3 seed Angelique Kerber, who beat Serena in the Australian Open final and might have been her fiercest potential foe at Roland Garros, was stunned in the first round, a three-set victim of Kiki Bertens.
Garcia cheered herself up and encouraged the crowd to support her after breaking back in the seventh game of the second set.
Former champion Ana Ivanovic is a possible last-16 opponent and the Serbian 14th seed looked in good form as she belted 22 forehand winners in a 7-5 6-1 defeat of Japan’s Kurumi Nara.
Advertisement
“I’m not a cold-weather person”.
