In the six major tournaments before this one, Williams went 39-2, with the only losses coming against Kerber and No. 7 Roberta Vinci, who ended the American’s try for a calendar-year Grand Slam at the 2015 U.S. Open but is done in Paris after losing Monday.
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Hampered by a left shoulder injury, the third-seeded Kerber was upset by 58th-ranked Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
That has led his former coach Brad Gilbert, among other pundits, to claim clay is now his best surface, and Murray said: “Right now it’s probably hard to argue with that”. The ATP and WTA rankings of June 6 – the day after the men’s final in Paris – will be the basis for Summer Games qualification. Sock needed 49 minutes when they resumed to finish things off.
“To be able to sleep on it, kind of re-evaluate, regroup and come out today might have helped me a little bit”, Sock said.
“This is the only slam [where] I haven’t played the final”. According to the draw, at Roland Garros 2016, these two players may cross their paths in the semifinals.
Even the normally intense Rafael Nadal cracked a mid-match smile in appreciation of the ‘tweener he produced Tuesday at the French Open. Sock lost to nine-time champion Rafael Nadal at that stage.
“It’s only two days out from the start of the tournament and I don’t know who I’m playing against yet”, Murray said about playing a qualifier. “I have been making steady progress with my overall fitness, but I am still not 100 percent and feel I might be taking an unnecessary risk by playing in this event before I am really ready”. With his 30th birthday just around the corner, Nadal has arguably the toughest draw-Italy’s Fabio Fognini, who came back from two sets down to beat him at the US Open a year ago, is a possible third round opponent.
The top-seeded man, Novak Djokovic, was not tested at all, defeating 95th-ranked Yen-hsun Lu 6-4, 6-1, 6-1. But all other matches on Sunday’s schedule that had yet to start are postponed.
He will face Andrey Kuznetsov in the next round.
Cagla Buyukakcay has become the first woman from Turkey to win a main-draw match at a Grand Slam tournament. We have adjoining rooms so I sleep next door during tournaments.
Soylu will face French wild-card entry Virginie Razzano in the first round.
Wawrinka takes Geneva Open: GENEVA – Top seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland defeated No. 3 seed Marin Cilic of Croatia, 6-4, 7-6 (11) at the Geneva Open. Play was halted by rain for almost three hours at one point during the day.
The American siblings already have won three gold medals in doubles, at the 2000, 2008 and 2012 Summer Games.
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.
Since then, Murray has won 91 per cent of his matches on clay – a giant step up from his previous career figure of 69 per cent – including two Masters titles.
The two-time quarterfinalist from Spain struggled early but rallied to beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Top-ranked Novak Djokovic is through to the second round at the French Open.
Is your money on the defending champion or the in-form player on clay? He had a break point for 4-0 but failed to convert.
“So bad, so bad”, he muttered to himself after netting a backhand as Nadal raced through the first set.
Rain delayed the start by more than 2½ hours.
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“To say that the reason that we stopped working together is because of my behavior on the court, that is not true”, he said. Standing in his way is Djokovic, who has beaten Nadal three times already in 2016 without dropping a set, though their semi-final match in Rome was very tight.
