Paire first victim as Nadal starts bid for 10th French Open
Rafael Nadal responded to his billing by French Open tournament director Guy Forget as the greatest claycourter in history by brushing aside Benoit Paire 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 on Monday, launching his bid for a 10th title on the Paris clay.
Both before the match and in courtside comments following his win, Nadal described Paire as a dangerous opponent, and the Frenchman played with more freedom in a closer second set as the Spaniard lost his edge.
Trading baseline rallies, they exchanged breaks to leave Paire leading 4-3. He had two break points in the following game that he failed to covert, the moment at which he indicated the momentum shifted.
“I got two balls, one when I missed my return, and then if it was 5-3 I thought I could finish the set and perhaps I could kind of liberate myself,” he told a news conference.
“...(So) it’s a bit frustrating to end a game like that.
Meanwhile, defending champion Novak Djokovic made a winning French Open start under new coach Andre Agassi, cruising past Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round.
The 12-time grand slam champion parted company with his entire coaching team earlier this month after a string of disappointing results before inviting American great Agassi to work with him during the French Open.
Agassi, however, will only stay for the first week of the tournament due to prior obligations, Djokovic said.
The 30-year-old Serbian, without a tour title since January, found little resistance from Granollers, grabbing two breaks early on in the first set as he chased the 77th-ranked Spaniard around the court.
“It was different for me being here this time because being defending champion gave me a lot of relief,” Djokovic told reporters. “I wanted to start off well, engage all engines in the right way which I have done.”
With Agassi, sporting a black t-shirt and sunglasses, quietly sitting in the stands along with the Serb’s entourage, it was a similar story early in the second set with the world number two returning everything Granollers tried to throw at him.
He again went 4-1 up before a wobble saw him fail to convert eight set points at 5-3.
“A set up and 4-1 up, when I had him on the ropes I just played very bad games,” he said. “That’s the only thing that wasn’t great for me.”
Djokovic, though, kept his cool to earn the second set and capitalized on the Spaniard’s accumulating mistakes in the third set to seal victory on his first match point.
With eight-time grand slam champion Agassi making a fast exit from the stands at the conclusion of the match, Djokovic heaped praise on his new coach.
“It is an incredible honor and good luck to have him with me on the team,” Djokovic said. “Every day is special with him. I am learning something every day.”
He said Agassi, who started working with Djokovic only days ago, would leave at the end of the week.
“I will try to use the time with him as best as I can. Plenty of information, plenty of things to process. I think this is exactly what I needed at this moment, a person like him who understands the reactions as a tennis player and a person.”
“I changed everyone (coaches). But I will not change my wife. My wife never.”
In other news, inspired defending champion Garbine Muguruza returned to the stage to down 2010 winner Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 6-4.
The fourth seed, who had been woefully out of form in the run-up to Roland Garros, never looked in danger of joining Russian Anastasia Myskina as the only reigning women’s champion to lose in the opening round of the claycourt grand slam.
The Spaniard outclassed the skillful Italian with her poise and power in muggy conditions.
There were several top-notch rallies and Schiavone pulled a few tricks from her bag, threatening in the second set. However, she made too many unforced errors to sustain any form of challenge.
“I was so excited to play here against another champion. Francesca is a legend,” Muguruza said.
She credited her win to staying composed throughout.
“You need to be focused. You need to be calm. Perhaps the public thinks that, okay, she won last year (so this match should be easy), but you need to avoid being (distracted) with these thoughts,” she told a news conference.
“I could have had anyone as an opponent today, but I need to win my own battles, my own fights.”
Muguruza raced to a 3-0 lead in the opening set and just when Schiavone was starting to work around her opponent’s power as she reduced the arrears to 3-2, the match was interrupted for 10 minutes as a spectator was attended to by first-aiders.
The Spaniard won 19 of 20 points after play resumed and led 2-0 in the second set.
That is when Schiavone’s game fell into place. She broke back and had two break chances in the sixth game, which Muguruza saw off confidently.
The champion then broke decisively for 5-4. Schiavone saved three match points but volleyed wide on the fourth.
Muguruza next faces Estonian Anett Kontaveit, one of the in-form players on clay this season who beat the Spaniard in the second round in Stuttgart.
“It’s a tough draw. It’s going to be a tough game. She’s enjoying a very good season on clay. She has an aggressive game too,” the 23-yearold said.
“So I’m going to start by enjoying my win today, and then I’ll wonder about the approach for the next game, which will be tough.”
(Reuters)