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Sabalenka in awesome form, 4-0 up, and Danilovic is in imminent danger of being bagelled.
Zheng hasn’t found it as easy in the second set, she serving to go 5-3 up but the Canadian is dragging her heels. Navone eventually took that first set off Musetti and he celebrated by grabbing a break in the opening game of the second set.
Continue reading...Gauff: Women deserve French Open night session slots
No women’s matches yet in Roland Garros prime time
22 Americans through to second round, most since 1994
Coco Gauff insists that women’s matches deserve to be given the night sessions at the French Open.
The world No 2 said she agreed with fellow WTA star Ons Jabeur, who reopened the debate earlier this week.
Continue reading...The Australian gave up a two-set lead in Paris sunshine
Maverick Kazakh fought back for 2-6 2-6 6-4 6-3 6-2 win
The sun came out in Paris and the gloom descended for Alex de Minaur as his French Open bid was poleaxed by a superlative comeback from the mad, marvellous maverick Alexander Bublik.
So used to playing in damp and dreary conditions at Roland Garros, Australia’s great hope looked energised by the lovely Roland Garros weather on Thursday as he swept into a two-set lead, looking just too fast, too focused and too professional for his eccentric Kazakh opponent.
Continue reading...Live coverage from Roland Garros from 10am UK time
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I can’t lie, I’d like further detail on the Roland-Garros tattoo parlour. How busy is it? Who’s been? What kind of thing are people getting? Any spider webs on faces or tears beneath eyes?
Krueger is playing nicely. Andreeva forces her through deuce in order to endorse, but she get there in the end; they’re both smacking it, but it’s the American whose radar is working better so far and she leads 2-0.
Continue reading...Australian beats Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo 7-5 6-3 6-4
Ajla Tomljanovic goes down to No 4 seed Jasmine Paolini
Alexei Popyrin has broken more fresh ground in his soaring career as he brightened up a gloomy day in Paris by reaching the third round of the French Open for the first time.
But while the 25th seed was battling his way past Chilean Alejandro Tabilo, 7-5 6-3 6-4 on a drizzle-splattered outside court, Ajla Tomljanovic’s big date under the roof of Court Phillippe Chatrier turned into a bit of a damp squib as she succumbed 6-3 6-3 to 2024 finalist Jasmine Paolini.
Continue reading...‘I don’t think they have daughters’ says Tunisian
Night session matches have almost always involved men
Ons Jabeur has criticised Roland Garros for snubbing women’s tennis, saying: “I don’t think they have daughters.”
The French Open introduced night-session matches in 2021 but they have almost always been men’s singles matches. Last year all 11 prime-time TV slot matches featured men and the three so far this year have followed suit, while Wednesday night’s is the Danish 12th seed Holger Rune against the American world No 137 Emilio Nava.
Continue reading...American realises error after reaching court
No 2 seed dismisses Olivia Gadecki in straight sets
Coco Gauff brought her usual weapons to her first round victory at the French Open on Monday – her withering groundstrokes, blazing speed and booming serve. The only thing that was missing was perhaps the most important though: her rackets.
The No 2 seed grinned sheepishly when she realised her error just after she stepped on to Court Philippe-Chatrier for her match against Australia’s Olivia Gadecki. “They were supposed to be in my bag,” she told the chair umpire after opening her bag and discovering she had left the rackets in the locker room.
Continue reading...Kyrgios feeling ‘pretty down’ after pulling out of French Open
‘You’ve just got to feel for him,’ says fellow Australian Jordan Thompson
Nick Kyrgios has been left crestfallen after a fresh knee injury forced him to abandon his planned return to action at the French Open, leaving more question marks over the luckless former Wimbledon finalist’s future in the sport.
Jordan Thompson, who had been set to play alongside his Australian compatriot in his first French Open for eight years, revealed the extent of his friend’s misery with Kyrgios telling him he did not know how much more he could take after his latest setback.
Continue reading...Navarro’s campaign at Roland-Garros lasts just 57 minutes
No 4 seed Fritz beaten in four sets by Daniel Altmaier
There were major upsets for two of the top American seeds at the French Open on Monday, as Taylor Fritz and Emma Navarro crashed out in the first round.
Taylor Fritz, the runner up at last year’s US Open, was eliminated 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 by world No 66 Daniel Altmaier of Germany. Altmaier broke the No 4 seed’s big serve five times on Court Simonne-Mathieu and ended the Californian’s 15-match grand slam winning streak against players ranked outside the top 50.
Continue reading...Emma Raducanu and Jacob Fearnley moved into round two while Paulo Badosa beat Naomi Osaka, Daniel Altmaier saw off Taylor Fritz and Carlos Alcaraz also won
Raducanu is getting nowt for nowt, forced to 30-all as she seeks her endorsement. From there, though, she does well to close out for 4-2, while Bouzas Maneiro breaks Navarra at the start of srt two for 6-0 1-0. This is an absolute tousing … so far.
Inside-out backhand to the corner … and Wang can’t control her response. Raducanu breaks again, for 3-2, and can she hold on to it this time?
Continue reading...American forgot to adjust payments after changing banks
Celebrates getting truck back with win over Elmer Moller
Tommy Paul was pleased to come back to win his first-round match at the French Open on Sunday, but perhaps not as thrilled as he was to discuss regaining the truck he lost when he accidentally missed some payments.
The 12th-seeded Paul eliminated Elmer Moller of Denmark 6-7, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 at Court Simonne-Mathieu on a day that alternated a light rain and heavy wind with sunshine.
Continue reading...Aryna Sabalenka opened her French Open campaign with a straight-sets win over Kamilla Rakhimova on the first day at Roland Garros
On Lenglen, Svitolina is serving for the first set, 5-1 up on Sonmez; on Mathieu, a fine backhand return, dipping cross, is too good for Paul, whose volley floats long, and that’s a break for Moller, the 21-year-old lucky loser, who leads 3-2 in the first.
On TNT, they’re talking about Sabalenka, who sounds full of it as she discusses her ambition to win on clay. Her Aussie Open defeat to Madison Keys will have stung her badly, though – earlier in her career she was the one who choked – and as soon as she’s put under serious pressure, we’ll see whether the wound has healed.
Continue reading...Joint outplays Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian 6-3, 6-2 in Rabat final
New world No 53 to play compatriot Ajla Tomljanovic in Paris
Australian tennis has been given a major boost on the eve of the French Open after Maya Joint was crowned a WTA tour title winner in Morocco at the age of just 19.
Joint collapsed to the clay in joy in Rabat on Saturdayafter outplaying Romanian Jaqueline Cristian 6-3, 6-2 in the Morocco Open final.
Continue reading...Djokovic beats Polish sixth seed 5-7, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2)
Only Connors (109) and Federer (103) have more men’s titles
Novak Djokovic became the third man in the Open era to reach 100 career wins, surviving a three-set thriller against Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz at the Geneva Open.
The Serbian great, seeded second, needed three hours and five minutes to turn back the sixth-seeded Hurkacz 5-7, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2) and win at the clay-court ATP 250 event. Djokovic was down 2-4 in the final set but a break of Hurkacz in the eighth game got the match back on serve. Djokovic prevailed despite 52 winners by Hurkacz, which included 19 aces.
This story will be updated
Continue reading...19-year-old into decider after Ajla Tomljanovic withdraws from semi
Australian pair to meet again in first round at Roland Garros
Teenager Maya Joint’s remarkable rise has scaled a new peak with the brilliant young Australian prospect reaching her first WTA final in Morocco, just days before making her French Open debut.
In what was seen as a clay-court dress rehearsal after the Australian pair had also been drawn to meet each other in the first round at Roland Garros, 19-year-old Joint came out on top in her last-four encounter with Ajla Tomljanovic at the Morocco Open in Rabat on Friday.
Continue reading...