Perfect 10 in France
American women are 10-0 in first round of French Open. Tennis, 1,
Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka turned it on when she had to Monday, winning 12 of the final 14 games to reach the second round in the French Open in Paris.
The Australian Open champion, who took over the No. 1 ranking by winning in Melbourne, struggled for long stretches but came back to beat Alberta Brianti of Italy 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-2. Azarenka had to save two break points to get to 4-1 in the second set.
“Sometimes I felt it was not my day. I thought, ‘Yeah, maybe I still fight. I still have a chance,’ ” Azarenka said. “Sometimes it was like, ‘ You know what? Forget it. I don’t want to do it.’ ”
And although Azarenka rebounded over the final two sets, she finished the match with 60 unforced errors.
“I think it says it all. Bad days happen,” Azarenka said. “Unfortunately today I had way more mistakes than I usually do. But, you know, it happens sometimes.”
Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer managed more straightforward victories.
Top-ranked Djokovic, who is trying to win his fourth Grand Slam tourna- ment title in a row, never faced a break point in beating Potito Starace of Italy 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-1.
“It’s just the first match here,” Djokovic said in French on court after the match. “It’s still a very long way to go before we talk about the final.”
Earlier, Federer beat Tobias Kamke of Germany 6-2, 7-5, 6-3.
The 16-time major champion equaled Jimmy Connors’ record of 233 career Grand Slam match wins in the Open era. Federer is 233-35 in tennis’ top four tournaments. Connors was 233-49.
Also Monday, the comeback story of American Brian Baker continued. Baker defeated Xavier Malisse of Belgium 6-3, 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-5).
Baker is playing in his first Grand Slam event since 2005 because of a series of injuries that all but ended his career.
There was the left hip operation in November 2005. A sports hernia in 2006, which, he explained this week as “more like a glorified lower ab tear, where they go in and reinforce it and fix it up.” That’s where Baker paused to note, “I didn’t actually have surgery in 2007,” before resuming with 2008, which included Tommy John elbow surgery in February, another left hip job in April, then work on his right hip in June.
Baker earned a French Open wild card from the USTA by virtue of results at low-level clay-court events in the USA. He hadn’t played in the main draw of a tour-level tournament since losing to Malisse in the U.S. Open in 2005 until managing to qualify last week in Nice, France. He lost in the final to Nicolas Almagro, and his ranking rose from 216th to 141st.