World No 1 Novak Djokovic was presented with an impressive tennis-themed birthday cake ahead of his bid to win a first French Open title at Roland Garros.
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She says “before matches I was very nervous and definitely had trouble eating”.
Her older sister, No. 9 Venus, also won in straight sets, thereby avoiding a second consecutive first-round Grand Slam loss – and a second consecutive first-round French Open loss.
“That was, for sure, not my best tennis”, she said.
“It was hard for me to break him, but for him it was also hard to break me”.
Former champions Ana Ivanovic (2008) and Francesca Schiavone (2010) are both in first-round action, while seven-time Grand Slam victor Venus Williams, a 2002 runner-up in Paris, opens against Estonia s Anett Kontaveit.
Francesca Schiavone (ITA #95) Head-to-head: Schiavone leads, 2-1Key Stat: Mladenovic has notched a Top 10 win in each of her last two Roland Garros appearances.
Second seed Murray came from two sets down to beat 37-year-old Czech veteran Radek Stepanek in a five set thriller. Last week she pulled out of the Nuremberg tournament because of her shoulder injury.
“It’s unbelievable what he is doing”, Murray said.
“The most important thing I had to do today was to return well and then I was playing with not many mistakes”, Nadal, who his first French Open title in 2005, told a news conference. Another match continuing Tuesday is No. 15 John Isner of the United States against John Millman of Australia.
With the win, Djokovic has now set up a clash against Belgian qualifier Steve Darcis, who also progressed through to the next round after seeing off Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan 6-3, 6-4, 6-0.
Murray double-faulted on his first match point but sealed victory, the ninth of his career from a two-set deficit, when Stepanek netted an attempted drop volley two points later.
For Groth, the odds of an upset were not exactly encouraging, given that he had never won a match at Roland Garros and only ever won a single match at tour level on clay.
“It was obviously an extremely hard match”, three-times semi-finalist Murray, who was two points from defeat serving at 4-5 in the decider, told reporters. Murray was leading the fourth 4-2 when play was suspended Monday because of darkness.
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However, Murray showed his resolve and raced through the third set in just 18 minutes as former world No. 8 Stepanek began to lose his way in the fading light.
