CLAY KINGS: RAFA AND NOVAK MARCH ON
HIGHS AND LOWS: Rafael Nadal, above, and Novak Djokovic reached the French Open third round yesterday but Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s late-night heroics proved in vain as he suffered his first opening-round loss at a grand slam in a decade. British No 3 Aljaz Bedene’s saw his Roland Garros campaign ended by Jiri Vesely. Petra Kvitova’s comeback, five months after being stabbed by an intruder, is also over.
KYLE EDMUND has a first thirdround appearance at the French Open in his sights following the shock first-round exit of home favourite Jo Wilfried Tsonga.
The Beverley player will face Tsonga’s conqueror Renzo Olivo today for a place in the last 32 at Roland Garros whilst world No 1 Andy Murray is also in second round action
Olivo took little time to see off 12th seed Tsonga yesterday in a dramatic match that had been delayed by bad light. The Argentine won the one game he required overnight to wrap up a 7-5 6-4 6-7 (6/8) 6-4 win.
Edmund is in the second round for a third successive year after sweeeping past Portuguese player Gastao Elias in straight sets in the first round. The world No 49 will go into the clash against Olivo as a clear favourite, with his opponent ranked 42 places below him and on a run of only one win in eight matches in main draws on the ATP circuit.
The pair have yet to meet on the ATP Tour although Edmund won their only previous meeting in straight sets at a Challenger event on clay back in 2015.
Edmund said he was already counting his run in France as progression to previous years.
After his win over Elias, the Yorkshireman said: “I’m happy but it’s only the first round. It’s not like I have made semis or finals for three years in a row. So it’s good that each year I’ve definitely got better.
“My first five-set win, first grand slam match came here. I remember it was very exciting. Last year was a great match against (Nikoloz) Basilashvili in four sets. This year I’ve won in three sets. So it’s good progression.”
Murray will look for more improvements in his game when he takes on Slovakia’s Martin Klizan in the second round – having produced a mixed performance to see off Andrey Kuznetsov in round one.
The Scot dropped a set against the Russian world No 73 before powering on to win 6-4 4-6 6-2 6-0. Having had a wretched run on clay this season, Murray is hoping a run of five-set matches will give him time to find his form on court. The Scot said: “It does help a little bit, because at least if you don’t start the match well you’ve got a bit of time to work it out and adjust to the conditions a little bit. That’s one of the advantages of the best of five.
“So maybe at the beginning of the match, if you’re coming in with not too many matches, you feel slightly less pressure than you might do if it was best of three. Because if you get down a set quick, there’s not lots of wiggle room there. You’ve got to turn it around quick. Maybe that helped me a little bit (against Kuznetsov).”
Murray has only met Klizan once before, in the first round in Beijing last October, and he completed a simple win during his 24-match winning streak. Klizan has claimed some big wins in his career but arrived in Paris nursing a calf injury and was involved in a fiery five-setter against Frenchman Laurent Lokoli in round one.
Aljaz Bedene’s French Open campaign ended in a secondround loss to Jiri Vesely.
The British No 3 had hoped to at least match last year’s run, when he lost in round three to Novak Djokovic, but he was overpowered by Vesely.
The Czech was in control for two sets and then recovered from dropping the third to win in four.
Djokovic and Rafael Nadal posted identical scorelines, with the defending champion seeing off Joao Sousa 6-1 6-4 6-3 before Nadal defeated Robin Haase.