Twice a grand slam champion, Wawrinka needed five sets to scrape past Lukas Rosol in the opening round and found himself in trouble in the first set against Daniel when he trailed 4-6 in the tiebreaker. The sixth-seeded Romanian rallied from 4-1 down in the first set to beat Zarina Diyas 7-6 (5), 6-2. Halep took the second set 6-2 after dropping the first 6-4. But Rosol showed a desire to hang around Paris, and he surprised the crowd – and probably Wawrinka – with a 6-3 third set victory.
Advertisement
So, Stan Wawrinka was asked, were you aware that in the long history of the French Open, no defending champion ever had lost in the first round? The two-time major victor made 46 unforced errors, but finally righted the ship. In their third meeting this year, the Czech broke for a 3-2 lead before going on to seal the opener against Wawrinka.
“It’s a good thing to get through, but it’s never, never the best to start with five-set match and not play your best tennis”.
“I’m one that cries very easily, and I think everyone saw that”.
Speaking after a first-round win at the French Open, Murray insisted “we certainly didn’t fall out”, and their relationship remains “good” despite the end of their ground-breaking, two-year coaching tie last month.
So much for the United States getting two men into the fourth round of the French Open for the first time in 15 years. Ranked 93rd, Daniel advanced when Martin Klizan of Slovakia retired with an injury while trailing 3-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 3-0 in their first-round match.
Fourth-seeded Garbine Muguruza had her headphones on, listening to music, when the supervisor announced the rain had stopped and it was time for her to head to court and she ended up having just 10 minutes to warm up for her match against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
That free-swinging masterclass nearly paid dividends again Monday but once he had let slip two break points at 2-2 in the fourth set, his hopes slowly slipped away.
But the 22-year-old Wimbledon runner-up was far from impressive.
Second seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, however, brushed aside Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-0, 6-2.
Venus Williams avoided a second consecutive first-round Grand Slam loss – and a second consecutive first-round French Open loss.
Nishikori, a quarter-finalist in 2015, coasted into the last 32 with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov.
It’s the second time in three years that Isner is into the round of 16.
In other matches Canada’s Milos Roanic was a straight sets victor over Janko Tipsarevic. local favourite Richard Gasquet beats Thomaz Bellucci in straight sets, tenth seeded Croatian Marin Cilic fell to Marco Trungelliti 6-7, 6-3, 4-6, 2-6.
Advertisement
There was also a second-round win for a Japanese player in the women’s draw, with Naomi Osaka beating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3, 6-3.
