Surprise first-day losers

A year after stunning the tennis world by winning the French Open for her initial tour-level title, Jelena Ostapenko is again in rare company; a first-round loser as the defending champion at a grand slam tournament.

Something even more unusual happened at Roland Garros, too; Venus Williams was beaten in her opening match at a second consecutive major, the only time in her lengthy, distinguished career she’s had such early back-to-back exits.

All in all, it was quite a day one at the only grand slam site that gets things started on a Sunday.

There already is certain to be at least one first-time French Open finalist because 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone and 2012 runner-up Sara Errani joined 2017 champion Ostapenko and 2002 runner-up Williams on the way out of the bottom half of the draw.

Ostapenko’s high-risk game produced far fewer rewards than problems, with 48 unforced errors to only 22 winners as she bowed out to 67thranked Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine 7-5, 6-3 at Court Philippe Chatrier.

Over at Court Suzanne Lenglen, things went similarly for Williams, a seven-time major champion, who had 21 more unforced errors than her opponent in a 6-4, 7-5 loss to 85thranked Wang Qiang of China.

“Terrible day at the office for me,” said Ostapenko. “I mean, in general, I played maybe, like, 20 per cent of what I can play. Made, like, 50 unforced errors and so many doublefaults. Like, couldn’t serve. I had this unbelievable pressure. I felt that I’m not myself.”

She is only the second reigning women’s champion to exit in the first round of the French Open a year later — it happened to 2005 winner Anastasia Myskina, too — and only the sixth at any major tournament in the professional era.

Errani lost to 32nd-seeded Alize Cornet of France 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, while Schiavone was beaten by Viktoria Kuzmova 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2). Also out of that half of the draw is No 22 Johanna Konta of Britain, a 6-4, 6-3 loser against Yulia Putintseva.

All seeded men in action won, including No 2 Alexander Zverev and No 4 Grigor Dimitrov, who eliminated Mohamed Safwat, the seventh “lucky loser” to make it into the draw and the first man from Egypt to play in a grand slam tournament in 22 years.

In 2017, ranked only 47th and aged 20, Ostapenko became the first woman since 1979 to win her initial tour-level trophy at a grand slam tournament.

But the fifth-seeded Latvian has had a rough road this season — her record is just 12-12.

Kozlova, meanwhile, is 24 and arrived at Roland Garros with an even worse mark for 2018 — 4-6.

She wasn’t even sure a couple of months ago whether she could participate in the French Open, because she damaged knee cartilage and resumed practising for about 15 minutes at a time in April.

“I didn’t expect anything from this match,” said Kozlova, who had never beaten someone ranked in the top 30 and was 1-6 in grand slam play before yesterday.

She is now 3-0 against Ostapenko, however.