Serena, Nadal breeze in openers as records loom
Both have chance to equal the all-time record for Grand Slam singles titles
Paris Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal both began this French Open with straight-set victories against overmatched foes on Monday.
And both have something significant at stake over the coming two weeks: a chance to equal a record for Grand Slam singles titles. Williams already has 23, the most by anyone in the professional era; one more will allow her to tie Margaret Court’s allera mark.
Nadal began his attempt to pull even with rival Roger Federer for the most by a man, 20, by beating Egor Gerasimov of Belarus 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
Williams posted a 7-6 (2), 6-0 win over 102nd-ranked American Kristie Ahn.
It was in New York less than a month ago that Ahn faced Williams in the first round — and lost.
So imagine this ( bad) luck of the draw: Ahn is now the only player to face Williams in the first round at two consecutive Grand Slam tournaments. Of note: Williams is 75-1 in openers at majors.
“I mean, I laughed,” Ahn said. “I mean, what are the odds?”
And this is how Ahn described the sensation of being across the net from Williams when she is at her very best.
“It feels like you’re trying to push a runaway train in the opposite direction,” Ahn said. “It’s very difficult to
try and stop, to stop her momentum when she’s going, when she’s feeling it.”
The man Nadal beat in the past two finals, Dominic Thiem, won his first match since winning the U.S. Open, with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win over 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic. This, too, was a recent rematch from New York.
Thiem will next face American qualifier Jack Sock, who beat Reilly Opelka 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 and was one of at least six men from the U.S. to get to the second round; only one did a year ago in Paris.
Among the key results on Day 2 of a chilly, pandemic-postponed French Open were losses by 2019 runner-up Marketa Vondrousova, who was beaten 6-1, 6-2 by Polish teenager Iga
Swiatek; three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber; 2017 U.S. Open finalist and 2018 French Open semifinalist Madison Keys; and men’s seeds No. 8 Gael Monfils, No. 14 Fabio Fognini and No. 19 Felix Auger-aliassime. Williams now gets another rematch, facing Tsvetana Pironkova, the player the 39-year-old American beat in the quarterfinals in New York earlier this month.
Williams keeps coming close to Court: Williams has made it to the final at four of her past eight major tournaments, losing each time. At the U.S. Open, after edging Pironkova, she exited in the semifinals against Victoria Azarenka, slowed a bit down the stretch after hurting her left Achilles tendon.