Thiem out of sync, ousted from French Open with 10th loss in a row

It all used to come so easily for Dominic Thiem on a tennis court — his powerful forehand, his elegant backhand, his hit-which-shot-when calculations, all fine-tuned to the point of a title at the U.S. Open and three other Grand Slam final appearances, including two at Roland Garros.

Nowadays, even though the pain from last year's torn tendon in his right wrist is no longer there, the strokes and, most disconcertingly, the wherewithal, are not what they once were, to the extent that his first-round exit at the French Open on Sunday was his 10th consecutive loss.

The situation has become dire enough that Thiem, a 28-year-old Austrian once ranked No. 3 but now No. 194, acknowledged after being beaten 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 by Hugo Dellien that perhaps it's time for him to head to the lower-level Challenger Tour to get a win and gain some confidence.

After lamenting his forehand, his backhand and a too-low first-serve percentage, Thiem got to the bigger issue: “Sometimes, I do really stupid decisions during the rally, drop shots or downthe-line (groundstrokes) at the wrong moment. (In) match match situations, I'm not playing well . ... Then, for example, there was one game today where I did four or five forehand return mistakes in a row, where I'm thinking, ‘What the heck is happening?'”

His quick departure was not the only noteworthy development on a cloudy, occasionally drizzly Day 1 at the year's second major tennis tournament, which welcomed back pre-pandemic sights and sounds of full attendance and no masks in the stands.

Carlos Alcaraz, the 19-year-old from Spain who is seeded No. 6 and a popular pick to win his first Grand Slam trophy, advanced just as cleanly and quickly as expected against “lucky loser” Juan Ignacio Londero 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 in the day's last match at Court Philippe Chatrier. Another teen, 18-year-old American Coco Gauff, also moved on, beating Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino 7-5, 6-0.

Given Thiem's troubles — sure, he was the runner-up to Rafael Nadal in Paris in 2018 and 2019, and to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open in 2020, but his last victory came in May 2021 — there were other results that probably were more surprising.