Canadian ousted in straight sets at French Open

PARIS • Felix Auger- Aliassime’s main draw debut at the French Open ended in brutal fashion on Monday. with a first-round exit, as the Canadian was humbled 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 by Yoshihito Nishioka.

Auger- Aliassime, 20, in his second senior appearance at Roland Garros after losing in qualifying in 2018, never found his range.

Japan’s Nishioka dropped serve early in the first set before taking control of the rallies and benefiting from his 19th-seeded opponent’s 58 unforced errors.

“You always see what you could do better, but when you’re in the moment you try your best. You try to win but sometimes it’s not enough. You’re not good enough on the day,” Auger-aliassime said.

“So now it’s past me and I’ve got to accept that. It’s not easy. It’s tough. But, yeah, for sure I felt like today I was just not playing good enough.”

Toronto’s Steven Diez dropped a decision to American Mackenzie Mcdonald, while on the women’s side, Montreal’s Leylah Fernandez dropped the opening set 6-1 to No. 31 seed Magda Linette, but then stormed back to take the next two 6-2, 6-3.

On Tuesday, Vasek Pospisil and Denis Shapovalov play their firstround matches.

Elsewhere, No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal moved into the second round with a straight set win, and No. 3 Dominic Thiem advanced with a win over Marin Cilic. No. 8 Gael Monfils and No. 14 Fabio Fognini were upset in their opening matches.

On the women’s side, No. 6 Serena Williams battled sluggish conditions to defeat fellow American Kristie Ahn 7- 6 (2), 6- 0.

“The biggest difference was just confidence,” Williams said of the difference in scores between the two sets. “I just need to play with more confidence, like I’m Serena.

“So that was it. I just started playing like that.”

Also scoring wins were No. 3 Elina Svitolina, No. 5 Kiki Bertens, No. 7 Petra Kvitova and No. 11 Garbine Muguruza.