Zverev starts off with thumping win
PARIS: Alexander Zverev rocked up at the French Open on Sunday looking like one of the ballboys with his salmon pink shirt but once he started wielding his racket, it was clear he was not there to follow orders as he thrashed Ricardas Berankis 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.
With the ballboys wearing strikingly similar shirts, the German would not have looked out of place if he had swapped places with one of them and stood to attention at the rear hoardings or crouched down on both knees near the net posts.
But the 21-year-old left Lithuania’s Berankis to do all the scrambling as he fired down 11 aces and 29 winners to wrap up victory in 69 blistering minutes to set up a second-round showdown with either Jiri Vesely or Dusan Lajovic. Seeded second at a major for the first time in his career, Zverev is billed to meet 10-times champion Rafael Nadal in the June 10 final.
But having failed to progress beyond the fourth round at any of the slams so far, the man tipped a future Grand Slam champion was not about to read too much into his seeding even though he enjoyed a sizzling build-up to Paris by contesting three claycourt finals and winning two of them.
“I’m the number two seed but it doesn’t mean anything as there are a lot of great players wanting to stop me,” he said.
DIMITROV THROUGH
Grigor Dimitrov did not let a lastminute switch in opponent throw him off his stride as he subdued Egyptian lucky loser Mohamed Safwat 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(1) in the first round.
Safwat’s appearance on the Philippe Chatrier arena caught a lot of people by surprise, not least the organisers who were still flagging up Dimitrov’s showdown against Serbia’s Viktor Troicki on the large screens around Roland Garros even as the players made their way on to court.
But with Troicki pulling out with a lower back injury, the bearded Safwat was suddenly given a platform to make his Grand Slam main draw debut at the age of 27 despite losing in the final round of qualifying.
So when exactly did Dimitrov discover that the identity of his first-round opponent had changed?
“I finished my warm-up and went to the locker room and Viktor told me ‘good luck’ and I was like ‘what’s going on’?” a bemused Dimitrov said courtside.
It was a sentiment shared by Safwat. “I didn’t understand what was going on. I didn’t even think for a second that I would have to go on court in the first match. I was (already) thinking (about) what I will do for the rest of the day.”
Safwat appeared to be suffering from a serious bout of stage fright as within 40 minutes the Bulgarian fourth seed had romped to a 6-1, 4-1 lead.