PARIS MATCH POINTS

THE rain that came at the beginning of the week at Roland Garros has resulted in a host of scheduling difficulties, with first-round matches only completed at 2pm yesterday. By that time some players unaffected by the weather had already booked their places in round three. Top German prospect Alexander Zverev was the last man to progress from the opening round, beating Pierre-Hugues Herbert in four sets. Another Frenchman stands between the 19-year-old and round three in the form of Stephane Robert. The 36-year-old had not progressed beyond the second round in Paris since 2011 but booked his spot with a shock four-set win over big-serving South African Kevin Anderson on Tuesday. THE award for racket smash of the day went to temperamental Frenchman Benoit Paire. The 19th seed went down 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in a highly charged secondround match against Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili, who is through to face Kyle Edmund’s conqueror John Isner. Paire’s mood will not be improved by the thought of Wimbledon coming up after this, because he hates it there due to a grass-court phobia. EUROSPORT and ITV are covering the French Open and Eurosport might be going it alone at this year’s US Open. Sky, who have shown events at Flushing Meadows since the early nineties — including Andy Murray’s historic win — are said to be considering not sub-contracting the rights from Eurosport this year to cut costs. CONTROVERSIAL Australian Nick Kyrgios is big news at the French Open so it was a surprise to see that he had been exiled to tiny court No 6 yesterday. The result was lengthy queues to get in but the 17th seed made light of the situation, taking only 70 minutes to defeat Holland’s Igor Sijsling in straight sets and book a meeting with home favourite Richard Gasquet.