Wimbledon champions Kerber and Williams fall at the first hurdle
Wimbledon winners Angelique Kerber and Venus Williams have made first-round exits from the French Open.
Neither was a particular surprise. Williams, who turns 39 next month, had a tough draw against ninth seed Elina Svitolina, while Kerber has just recovered from an ankle injury that kept her out for a month.
She looked short of matches as she was sent packing by Russian teenager Anastasia Potapova 6-4, 6-2.
Kerber has never been particularly at home on clay but, having added Wimbledon to her 2016 Australian Open and US Open titles, she now only needs the Roland Garros trophy for a career Grand Slam.
The result was the best win of Potapova’s fledgling career, and the 18-year- old will face fellow teen Market a Vondrousova in round two.
Kerb er said :“She really played good. I tried my best. I was able to practise the last few days really good but it was not reall y a long clay- cour t preparation with everything.”
Williams made her French Open debut way back in 1997, rea ching her only final five years later but she, to o, has struggled with injur y prob - lems this year and 34 unforced errors in 18 games cost her as she went down 6-3, 6-3.
The 38-year-old, now ranked 52, praised Svitolina, saying: “I thought she played really well and took her opportunities. I wish her luck in the tournament. Maybe a few too many unforced errors today.”
It was a welcome win for Svitolina, who has been sidelined with a knee problem and had not won a match since Indian Wells in March.
Second seed Karolina Pliskova arrived in Paris full of confidence after winning her biggest title on clay in Rome last weekend and she made a solid start, beating American Madison Brengle 6-2, 6-3.
Sloane Stephens, the runnerup 12 months ago, was also a straight-sets winner but she was pushed to a tie-break in the second by Misaki Doi before prevailing 6-3, 7-6.
Aside from Kerber’s defeat, it was a good day for the seeds, with Be linda Bencic,P et ra Mar tic and Garbine Muguruza all winning. Ex-champion Muguruza had the honour of playing the first match on the new show court, Simonne Mathieu, and she recovered from a set down to defeat Taylor Townsend 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.