Screaming in anger and hitting her racket on the red clay of Court Philippe Chatrier, Petra Kvitova came close to an early exit at the French Open on the first day of the Grand Slam tournament.
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Stan Wawrinka is one set away from becoming the first defending French Open champion to lose in the first round. “You need to be ready to suffer a little bit during the match because I know he’s going to be hard to have breaks against”.
Third seed Kerber, who has yet to advance past the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, lost 6-2 3-6 6-3.
WILLIAMS AT NO. 1: Serena Williams begins defense of her title – and renews her pursuit of a 22nd Grand Slam singles trophy, which would equal Steffi Graf’s Open-era record – against 77th-ranked Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia.
Daniel’s fellow Japanese, 2014 U.S. Open finalist Kei Nishikori, later defeated Simone Bolelli 6-1 7-5 6-3.
A vulnerability match between two players carrying some scar tissue onto court. The 11th seed closed out the first-round match as umpires on other courts were pulling players off court again for more rain.
For a man with the kind of resume that Djokovic has built-and he now owns the same number of Major titles as Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg and more Masters titles than anyone else, 29 of them-the French Open is one of the biggest, along with Olympic gold, that he has yet to tick off.
Nishikori will face Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov after finishing off a first-round tie which had been suspended with him leading 2-1 in the third set.
But the wily Czech is a former world number eight who is a Grand Slam doubles and Davis Cup champion.
Something similar transpired several hours later, when No. 2 Andy Murray faced an even greater deficit, dropping the first two sets against 128th-ranked qualifier Radek Stepanek, who at 37 is the oldest man in the field.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka won her first match at Roland Garros with a 6-4, 7-5 triumph over Latvian 32nd seed Jelena Ostapenko.
Ranked 59th, Rosol had never beaten Wawrinka – and had taken only two sets off him – in four previous encounters.
The defending champion forged ahead with a crucial break in the third game of the decider before closing it out to book a second-round match-up with Japan’s Taro Daniel.
The third-seeded Wawrinka was out of sorts for most of the match on a gray, chilly afternoon, winding up with 46 unforced errors, 17 on his preferred backhand wing.
Garcia won the Strasbourg claycourt title on Saturday.
However, just four teens are present in the first round of Roland Garros this year with promising German youngster Alexander Zverev the highest-rated of the quartet at 41 in the world.
Wawrinka, who shattered Djokovic’s latest attempt to complete the career Grand Slam with victory in last year’s final, takes on another Czech, Lukas Rosol. There is a 10 percent chance of rain in Paris on Tuesday.
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In the bottom half of the draw, second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska will start her bid for a first major title against Bojana Jovanovski.
