Roland Garros: Former French Open champion Stan Wawrinka continued to struggle with form and fitness as he was dumped out in the first round by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Monday, a defeat which will send his world ranking plummeting, but Novak Djokovic cruised through in straight sets.
Wawrinka, who lost to Rafael Nadal in last year’s final and won the 2015 title, was beaten in a five-set thriller 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 by the Spanish world number 67 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
The 33-year-old has been plagued by a knee injury and arrived at Roland Garros having won just one match on clay in Geneva last week, his first event in three months.
Serbian star Novak Djokovic opened his French Open campaign with a comfortable 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva on Monday.
The 12-time Grand Slam winner was well below his best on Court Philippe Chatrier, though, and dropped serve three times against the world number 134 Dutra Silva.
Djokovic, whose form has been steadily improving since returning from a right elbow injury earlier this year, was still far too good for his opponent and will next play qualifier Jaume Munar tomorrow at 2.30 pm (IST).
Former world number one Victoria Azarenka’s return to Grand Slam tennis lasted just two sets as Belarusian slumped to a 7-5, 7-5 loss to Katerina Siniakova.
Azarenka, who missed much of last season after being embroiled in a custody battle over her son, was broken to love in the 12th games of each set to be dumped out by the Czech world number 57.
Petra Kvitova also found life hard, but the two-time Wimbledon champion fought back from a set down to beat Paraguay’s Veronica Cepede Royg 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Rain halts Nadal’s progress
Nadal was leading 6-4, 6-3, 0-3 when rain interrupted the proceedings in his first round men’s singles tie played against S.Bolelli of Italy. R. Gasquet beat A. Seppi 6-0, 6-2, 6-0 in another first round match.
This post was published on May 29, 2018 5:12 pm