Brief blips before Alcaraz, Djokovic power to victories
Pretty much everyone expects to see, and likely wants to see, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic face each other in the French Open tennis semifinals.
There’s work to be done first, of course, and both began their journeys at Roland Garros with straight-set victories yesterday against opponents making Grand Slam debuts.
These were supposed to be straightforward chances to ease into the clay-court tournament for the two popular picks to win the men’s trophy — and it turned out that way, other than a brief late blip for each.
Djokovic, a 22-time major champion seeded No 3, was up first in Court Philippe Chatrier, facing 114th-ranked Aleksandar Kovacevic, a 24-year-old from New York. Djokovic served for the victory at 5-4 in the third set but got broken there. Not surprisingly, he quickly righted himself and won 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (1).
“Made me work for my victory,” Djokovic said. “I played really well and held things under control for twoand-a-half sets and then lost my serve and things got a little bit on a wrong side for me,” said the 36-year-old Serb, who can break the men’s mark for most Slam titles he shares with Rafael Nadal, the 14-time French Open winner sidelined by a bad hip. “But I managed to hold my nerves and played pretty much a perfect tiebreak.”
Next came Alcaraz, a one-time major champion seeded No 1, in Court Suzanne Lenglen, facing 159th-ranked qualifier Flavio Cobolli, a 21-year-old from Florence, Italy.
Alcaraz held three match points to close things at 5-3 in the third set but couldn’t convert, then found himself at 5-5 minutes later. Not surprisingly, he quickly righted himself and won 6-0, 6-2, 7-5.
Before the start of the tournament, Djokovic called Alcaraz the logical pick to take the trophy, given his recent form on clay: 21-2 as of yesterday, with three titles.
Hard to argue.
On the other hand, Djokovic also noted he loves the best-of-five-set format of majors and not-so-accidentally mentioned the 22-1 gap in such championships.
Other seeded men advancing on day two in Paris included No 12 Frances Tiafoe, No 14 Cam Norrie, No 15 Borna Coric, No 18 Alex de Minaur, No 19 Roberto Bautista Agut and No 26 Denis Shapovalov. Among the seeded women moving into the second round: No 5 Caroline Garcia, No 14 Beatriz Haddad Maia, No 20 Madison Keys and No 22 Donna Vekic.
Seeds on the way out included No 12 Belinda Bencic and No 16 Karolina Pliskova in the women’s bracket and No 10 Felix Auger-Aliassime and No 25 Botic Van de Zandschulp in the men’s.
Part of the group of past Grand Slam champions who won yesterday were Stan Wawrinka and Sloane Stephens.
Wawrinka edged Albert RamosVinolas 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-7 (2), 1-6, 6-4 across more than four-and-a-half hours, while 2017 US Open winner Stephens defeated two-time major finalist Pliskova 6-0, 6-4.
“One of the big reasons why I keep playing is to relive those emotions. It was special again to be here, a lot of support, a lot of fans here. It helped me a lot to stay in the match and to keep fighting for it,” said Wawrinka, a 38-year-old whose three major titles include the 2015 French Open.