Venus, defending champion out; good starts for Cornet, Stephens
PARIS: Former world number one Venus Williams suffered a shock defeat by Chinese player Wang Qiang in the French Open first round here on Sunday.
The 37-year-old ninth seed was well short of her best as Wang claimed a 6-4, 7-5 victory and gained a measure of revenge for her first-round loss to Venus at Roland Garros last year.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion has now lost both her matches at major tournaments this year, having reached the Australian Open and Wimbledon finals in 2017.
But the shock of the day came when Jelena Ostapenko became only the sixth female Grand Slam champion to lose in the opening round when she lost to Kateryna Kozlova.
The world number five never looked at ease on the Roland Garros main show court, slumping to a 7-5, 6-3 defeat to a Ukrainian opponent who had won both the pair’s previous meetings.
Not since Anastasia Myskina lost in the opening round of the 2005 tournament has the French Open lost its women’s champion so early.
CORNET BEATS ERRANI
France’s Alize Cornet dug deep to recover from a set down to defeat Italian Sara Errani 2-6 6-2 6-3 in a show of powerful baseline hitting to progress to the second round. Sloane Stephens enjoyed her first Grand Slam win as the reigning U.S. Open champion by demolishing Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus 6-2, 6-0 in the first round. Earlier, Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina powered past Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5, 6-3.
In other news, Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky, a two-time semi-finalist at the French Open, pulled out of the singles draw due to an ongoing calf injury.