Federer opens French with straight-set win
PARIS — Roger Federer was not amused.
As Federer finished an interview after his first-round French Open victory Sunday, an overzealous fan left his seat and approached the 17-time major champion on the main stadium court in search of the most modern of mementos — a cellphone selfie.
It was, certainly as far as Federer was concerned, the most noteworthy development on Day 1 at the claycourt Grand Slam tournament. Like No. 2 Federer, who beat Colombia’s Alejandro Falla 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, most seeded players progressed without a hitch.
Against Falla five years ago at Wimbledon, Federer lost the opening two sets of a first-round match before coming back to win. So on Saturday night, Falla watched 15 minutes of highlights from that close call “to get inspired.”
It didn’t help Sunday against the 2009 French Open champion, because, as Falla explained, “When I played my best tennis, he also played really well.”
No. 5 Kei Nishikori and No. 8 Stan Wawrinka, who both exited in the first round last year, won in straight sets, as did No. 24 Ernests Gulbis, a 2014 semifinalist.
Nishikori beat local favourite Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-3, 7-5, 6-1. Winning 79 per cent of points on his first serve and hammering down seven aces, Nishikori converted seven of his 15 break points and took 2 hours, 10 minutes to brush the former big hope of French tennis off Court Suzanne Lenglen at Roland Garros.
“I think it was solid match,” Nishikori said. “I think it’s not easy to play three straight sets easy. So, you know, there are some ups and downs, and I think I fought through pretty well.”
The 25-year-old Nishikori, a U.S. Open finalist last year, is among the big outsiders at the French Open after defending his Barcelona title and making it to the semifinals in Madrid and the quarter-finals in Rome, where he lost to the top-ranked Novak Djokovic.
Nishikori, who moved to the United States when he was 14 and has been coached by former French Open winner Michael Chang since last year, is the highest-ranked Japanese player ever. Japan started with five men in the French main draw — the most since 1967 when there were six.
Go Soeda’s 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 first-round loss to Philipp Kohlschreiber quickly reduced their ranks to four, but Nishikori is enthusiastic about the future of tennis in his country.
“It’s great to see many Japanese players here, and I think men’s tennis got much better right now in Japan,” said Nishikori, who used to be nicknamed “Project 45” when his goal was to reach the No. 45 rank so as to be one spot higher than the best ranking achieved by any Japanese man.
The other Japanese players involved in the men’s draw this year are qualifiers Taro Daniel and Yeshihito Nishioka, as well as 108thranked Tatsuma Ito.
The only seeded men defeated on Sunday were No. 25 Ivo Karlovic, beaten 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-4 by 2006 Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis, and No. 26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, edged 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (1), 3-6, 6-3 by 56th-ranked Steve Johnson of Redondo Beach, Calif.