French Open diary: Day two in Paris
The second day of the French Open picked up where the first left off: with high-drama, some surprise victories and one particularly surprising press conference announcement.
Both of the defending champions began their 2017 campaigns, while British interest was focused on Aljaz Bedene. Or should that be Slovenian interest?
Here, we round-up the second day of the second Grand Slam of the season. We also preview Tuesday’s action.
The hero of day two
“There are at least fifteen players that can win the women’s singles this year,” has been heard as much around Roland-Garros over the last few days as “bonjour,” or “merci beaucoup.” And one woman that many have tipped to win this year is home hope Kristina Mladenovic, who has impressed in a couple of the tune-up tournaments heading into the French Open.
But things did not go according to plan for Mladenovic — who is carrying an awful amount of expectation on her shoulders considering she’s never been beyond the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam. She found herself in a complete dogfight with 88th-ranked Jennifer Brady on Court Philippe Chatrier and had to dig awfully deep to win. Her 3-6, 6-3, 9-7 triumph was all the more heroic considering she suffered a back injury in practice on Sunday and had to play through the pain to win. It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t how she would have imagined navigating the first round, but the most important thing is that she got over the line. 2012 finalist
Sara Errani awaits her in the next round.
Upset of the day
American tennis writer Ben Rothenburg won tweet of the day for this effort: “I hope US players appreciate how easy they have it, scrutiny-wise, vs the other nations. This (plus his Davis Cup loss) would be savaged elsewhere.”
The loss Rothenburg was referring to was Jack Sock’s underwhelming 7-5 7-5 6-3 exit to Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic. Sock was the fourteenth seed in the men’s draw and is the American number one but looked exceptionally sluggish, making 39 unforced errors before crashing out of a Grand Slam in the opening round for the very first time. ”Overall,” he said in his press-conference afterwards, ”a pretty horrendous day for me.” Quite.
Performance of the day
She didn’t win — but she came mighty close. Few gave Aussie prospect Jamiee Fourlis much hope of beating the former World No 1 Caroline Wozniacki on Court Suzanne Lenglen this morning, but Fourlis played out of her skin, taking her more experienced opponent to three sets in a Roland-Garros debut she can be immensely proud of.
Some 300-odd ranking places separate the pair, but Fourlis — who was playing in just her second Grand Slam after making it to the second round of the Australian Open last year — refused to be overawed and more than held her own in an occasionally feisty affair. Both women were left frustrated with what they perceived to be poor line-calls, with Fourlis eventually tiring in the third.
Brit watch
Aljaz Bedene became the first British player to win a match at this year’s French Open, impressively defeating the American player Ryan Harrison 6-4 6-0 3-6 6-1.
Harrison is actually ranked higher than Bedene and started well, but struggled to deal with the sweltering Parisian heat and completely flopped in the second-set. He took advantage of some cloud cover in the third and pinched a set back, but deteriorated again in the fourth. Bedene will now play Sock’s conquerer Vesely in the second round.
Although for how much longer Bedene will remain a part of Brit watch — who knows? Perhaps we’ll have to modify the section to Slovenian and Brit watch instead.
Quote of the day
“No, I don't like them. But anyway, I don't think I'm playing so long anymore, so I don't care what they are doing in the Next Generation Finals.”
Andreas Seppi’s fairly blunt response to a question about a series of new rule changes that are to be trialled at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan later this year.
Stat attack
125: Both Frances Tiafoe and Fabio Fognini won exactly 125 points during their brilliantly madcap five-set match on Court 16. But it was Fognini — who knocked Andy Murray out of the Italian Open — who won the points that mattered. He plays his compatriot Andreas Seppi in the next round.
Tuesday’s order of play
Philippe-Chatrier (from 10am UK time)
Konta (7) v Hsieh Murray (1) v Kuznetsov Tsonga (12) v Olivo Capelova v Halep (3)
Suzanne-Lenglen (from 10am UK time)
Svitolina (5) v Shvedova Wawrinka (3) v Kovalik Hibino v Garcia (28) Brown v Monfils (15)
Court 1 (from 10am UK time)
Cornet v Babos Kokkinakis v Nishikori (8) Struff v Berdych (13) Ferro v Radwanska (9)
Court 2 (from 10am UK time)
Kohlschreiber v Kyrgios (18) Barty v Keys (12) Albot v Chardy Ozaki v Bouchard
Court 3 (from 10am UK time)
Kato v Townsend Querrey (27) v Chung Osaka v Van Uytvanck Isner v Thompson
Court 4 (from 10am UK time)
Barthel v Pironkova Murray/Soares v Tipsarevic/Troicki Schwartzman/Tiafoe v Harrison/Venus Lorenzi v Berankis
Court 5 (from 10am UK time)
Cirstea v Peng Jebavy/Vesely v Barrere/Olivetti Khachanov v Jarry Duan v Maria
Court 6 (from 10am UK time)
Pella v Del Potro (29) Baghdatis v Almagro Vondrousova v Hesse Sevastova v Beck
Court 8 (from 10am UK time)
Escobedo v Istomin Kontinen/Peers v Marrero/Robredo Huey/Istomin v Haase/Inglot
Court 10 (from 10am UK time)
Dolgopolov v Berlocq Halys/Mannarino v Mirnyi/Youzhny Estrella Burgos/Tomic v Knowle/Mayer Rojer/Tecau v Bellucci/Berlocq
Court 14 (from 10am UK time)
Lokoli v Klizan Strycova v Riske Edmund v Elias Paquet v Pliskova
Court 16 (from 10am UK time)
Klaasen/Ram v De Schepper/Millot Anderson v Jaziri Peralta/Zeballos v Lopez/Lopez Kastkina (26) v Wickmayer
Court 17 (from 10am UK time)
Sakkari v Suarez Navarro (21) Bondarenko v Martic Martin/Nestor v Gonzalez/Young Monteiro v Muller
Court 18 (from 10am UK time)
Molteni/Shamasdin v Bagnis/Ramos-Vinolas Cerretani/Medvedev v Cabal/Farah Begemann/Oswald v Basilashvili/Reid Erlich/Sa v Klizan/Sousa