Swiss earned his first clay-court title of season on Saturday in Geneva
Stan Wawrinka made it to Roland Garros on Saturday night, hours before the first day of play at the season’s second Grand Slam. It marks the latest Wawrinka has ever arrived at a Grand Slam during his 15-year career.
But the Swiss star said he still feels prepared to try and defend his Roland Garros title and go for his third Grand Slam championship. “For sure it’s late arriving for a Grand Slam, especially if you want to go far in a Grand Slam, but I think I’m feeling good. I’m feeling fit. My tennis is there, and I’m ready to play my first match tomorrow,” Wawrinka said on Sunday during his pre-tournament press conference.
The World No. 4 had good reason to arrive later than usual. Wawrinka prevailed against World No. 11 Marin Cilic in straight sets to win the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open on Saturday afternoon. It was the first time Wawrinka has won a title in his home Switzerland. The win also gave him his first clay-court crown of the season and ended a string of earlier exits on clay this year.
Wawrinka reached the quarter-finals of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters before falling to Rafael Nadal in straight sets. At the Mutua Madrid Open, Wawrinka lost the first match he played, bowing out in the second round to Nick Kyrgios in straight sets. And in Rome, the two-time Grand Slam champion reached the third round before losing to then-World No. 114 Juan Monaco in three sets.
“It was good to win the trophy yesterday. It gives me a lot of confidence and happiness,” Wawrinka said.
Arriving just in time at a Grand Slam can be positive, too, he said. Since he was focused on Geneva, Wawrinka wasn’t thinking about Roland Garros days before the tournament started.
“It’s also quite good to arrive here a few days before to practise on the court and to get ready and everything,” Wawrinka said. “But since they put that tournament in Switzerland in Geneva close from my home the week before, I took the decision to play and to change a little bit the rest of the schedule, and last year it happened to be really good for me.”
Last year, Wawrinka lost in the quarter-finals in Geneva before claiming the Roland Garros title. He remains the last player to beat World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in a Grand Slam.
“He’s still playing amazing tennis, if you look what happened this year already, and since last year in the final,” Wawrinka said of the Serb. “He’s for sure the big favorite, and he’s going to be really difficult to beat.”
Wawrinka will try to become the third player in the past 17 years to win back-to-back titles at Roland Garros (Nadal, Kuerten). On Monday, he opens his defence against Lukas Rosol, whom he beat in three sets last week in Geneva. Wawrinka also leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 4-0.
“He’s a dangerous player. He’s serving big. He’s going for his shots,” Wawrinka said of Rosol. “You never know what to expect, really. You need to be really solid and stay there.”
| French Open |
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| Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Dates: 22 May to 5 June |
| Coverage: Live radio and text commentary on selected matches on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, the BBC Sport website and app. |
Britain’s number two Heather Watson fought back against American Nicole Gibbs at the French Open before play was suspended because of rain.
But Gibbs had the upper hand and was serving at 7-5 2-6 2-1 when the players were called off on Sunday evening.
Watson dropped her serve twice as she went down in the first set, but bounced back after the first rain delay.
The 24-year-old comfortably took the second set but her serve was broken early in the decider.
Fellow Briton Kyle Edmund was among a host of players scheduled to begin their campaigns on day one but who must now wait on the weather.
Edmund will meet qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili, while British number one Andy Murray is due to face 37-year-old Czech Radek Stepanek.
Australian Nick Kyrgios and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova both progressed before the rain delays on Sunday.
Kyrgios overcame a first-set code violation to beat Italy’s Marco Cecchinato 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.
The men’s 17th seed picked up the warning for screaming at a ball boy for a towel during the first-set tie-break, and then accused umpire Carlos Ramos of “unbelievable bias” for his punishment.
Tenth seed Kvitova needed three sets to get past Danka Kovinic of Montenegro 6-2 4-6 7-5.
Last year’s losing finalist Lucie Safarova breezed through to the second round with a 6-2 6-0 victory over Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Viktorija Golubic and Hsieh Su-wei also made it through in the women’s singles, while Teymuraz Gabashvili, Andrey Kuznetsov, Igor Sijsling and Benoit Paire progressed in the men’s.
Most players are starting to wind down their singles careers in their 30s, but Stephane Robert has been peaking in his.
The 36-year-old from France has made a remarkable push this year back into the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings. He won the $50,000 ATP Challenger Tour event this February in New Delhi, India, then finished as runner-up the following month at the $100,000 tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico. Robert even gave World No. 1 Novak Djokovic all he could handle last week in a tight two-set loss at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Rome.
Having started the year at No. 208 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, Robert is now comfortably back inside the Top 100 at No. 89. He’s now hoping for a deep run on home soil at Roland Garros, having been granted direct entry into the main draw following a strong start to the season on the ATP Challenger Tour.
“I didn’t have a lot of confidence coming into this year, so the beginning I’ve had is surprising for me,” said Robert. “This is the best beginning I’ve had in my 15-year career.”
Although injuries pulled him out of the Top 100 in 2010 (the same year he reached his career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 61) and again in 2014, Robert has enjoyed many of the ATP Challenger Tour events he’s played while rebuilding his ranking. He had particularly good things to say about the $50,000 tournament this April in Turin, Italy.
“The organization there is very good and I really liked the stadium,” said Robert. “I also liked the history and architecture of the city.”
With relatively minimal points to defend until late fall, it’s possible that Robert could even surpass his current career-high Emirates ATP Ranking before the end of the year. However, the Frenchman said he isn’t thinking about the possibility and is only concerned about the next match in front of him.
“I’ve never worried about what my ranking is. If you think about this, you won’t have the same positive results,” said Robert. “I just focus on each match so I can play with full focus and without pressure.”
American has effectively used ATP Challengers to boost his tour-level play
Earlier this year, weeks before Denis Kudla was preparing to play Dusan Lajovic in the first round of Roland Garros, the American was sliding on Har-Tru, trying to find his footing at ATP Challenger tournaments.
Kudla has been ranked inside the Top 100 Emirates ATP Rankings for almost a year now, since last July. But the 23 year old still finds ATP Challenger tournaments worth his time and commitment. At Challenger events, Kudla said, players of all rankings can try to string together a few nice wins and gain some much-needed confidence. With that self-belief, he said, most players can have a chance of beating almost anyone in the world.
“There’s so many good players here,” Kudla said in Savannah. “No matter what tournament you’re playing, what level you’re at, if you have confidence, you can pretty much play with anybody.”
Kudla played in two ATP Challenger events on Har-Tru earlier this year, the Sarasota Challenger and the Savannah Challenger. The Ukrainian-born American enjoyed varied results. In Sarasota, Kudla was the top seed but fell to then-World No. 190 Noah Rubin 7-5, 2-6, 7-6(8).
“The Challengers haven’t been so great for me this year,” Kudla said before starting in Savannah.
But he became more comfortable on the crushed stone. In Savannah, Kudla won his first-round match by coming back from a set down to beat clay-court veteran Giovanni Lapentti of Ecuador. In the second round, Kudla dismissed Brian Baker, a former World No. 52 who’s making another comeback from injuries.
Kudla then dispatched Nicolas Jarry but lost in the semi-finals to Bjorn Fratangelo, who would later win the USTA Pro Circuit Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge and gain direct entry into Roland Garros.
This week will mark Kudla’s fourth time playing in Paris but only his second in the main draw. (He lost to Jan Hajek in the first round in 2013.) Kudla is hoping his recent success on the Challenger Tour helps his play at upcoming tour-level events, much like it did last year during a career breakthrough.
It was early June, and the right-hander had just finished up the clay-court season with disappointing results. Kudla failed to win a round at qualifying at Roland Garros and was 2-6 during tour-level play for the season. His ranking also had dropped 16 places since the start of the year to No. 139. “I wasn’t in a great place,” Kudla said.
With his new coach, Billy Heiser, Kudla headed to grass-court ATP Challengers to jumpstart his season. At the Surbiton Challenger, Kudla strung together four wins to make the final before falling to Matthew Ebden of Australia in a third-set tie-break. The next week, at the Illkley Challenger, Kudla won four more matches and then beat Ebden 6-3, 6-4 to capture his fifth ATP Challenger title.
That success led him to bigger things at tour-level events. He posted a career-best showing at a Grand Slam by reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon. His All-England Club run featured wins over then-World No. 23 Pablo Cuevas, #NextGen star Alexander Zverev and then-World No. 60 Santiago Giraldo of Colombia. In the fourth round, Kudla grabbed a set from then-World No. 9 Marin Cilic before falling in four sets.
Later that year, Kudla earned his best showing at a tour-level event by making the semi-finals of the BB&T Atlanta Open. “I was in a new mindset, just trying to stay positive,” Kudla said. “Everything just kind of came together in a really short period of time, which is not easy to do. But I took advantage of it and I kept going. I felt like it was one of the first times in my career where I played really well for a long period of time.”
With more Challenger success behind him, Kudla will try to start another impressive run this week at Roland Garros.
2016 ROLAND GARROS – This is the 49th tournament in the Open Era (since 1968) and 83rd at Roland Garros since 1925 (tournament was not held from 1940-45 during World War). In 1925, the draw was opened to players outside of France. The French Championships started in 1891 and this is the 115th overall staging of the tournament. There are two former champions in the field – reigning champ Stan Wawrinka and nine-time winner Rafael Nadal (2005-08, ’10-14). There are a Grand Slam tournament record 51 players 30 & over in the main draw.
DJOKOVIC TOP SEED – This is Novak Djokovic’s 16th Grand Slam tournament as the No. 1 seed. It’s also the fourth time in five years at Roland Garros and the eighth consecutive Grand Slam in which Djokovic has been the top seed. Eight of his 11 Grand Slam titles have come as the top seed: ’11 & ‘15 US Open, ’12-13, ’15-16 Australian Open and ’14-15 Wimbledon. This will be the 21st consecutive Grand Slam tournament in which he is a Top 2 seed.
FRENCH TITLE HOPES – It’s been 33 years since the last Frenchman, Yannick Noah, held up the champion’s trophy in 1983 (d. Wilander). He is the only French Grand Slam singles champion in the Open Era. Prior to that, Marcel Bernard won the title in 1946. The last French finalist at Roland Garros was Henri Leconte in 1988. The best results among active Frenchmen are by Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with semi-final results in 2008 and 2013, ‘15, respectively. The last Frenchman to reach a Grand Slam singles final was Tsonga at the 2008 Australian Open (l. to Djokovic).
BIG 4 DOMINATE – Since Roland Garros in 2005 when Nadal won his first Grand Slam title, the Big 4 of Djokovic, Federer, Nadal and Andy Murray have combined to win 40 of the past 44 Grand Slam titles with the only exceptions the 2009 US Open (Juan Martin del Potro), 2014 Australian Open (Stan Wawrinka), 2014 US Open (Marin Cilic) and 2015 Roland Garros (Wawrinka). During the current stretch, Nadal has won 14 titles, Federer 13 titles, Djokovic 11 and Murray 2. The foursome have also won 52 of the past 56 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles going back to 2010 Monte-Carlo. During that stretch, Djokovic has won 23 titles, Nadal 13, Federer 8 and Murray 8.
THE REIGNING CHAMPION – Last year Wawrinka came in as the No. 8 seed (No. 9 ranked) and captured his second Grand Slam title, defeating the top two players en route: No. 2 Federer in the quarter-finals and No. 1 Djokovic in the final. At 30 years old, Wawrinka became the first 30 & over champion at Roland Garros since Andres Gomez in 1990. Entering this week Wawrinka, who is playing in Geneva, had a 3-3 record on clay with his best result the quarter-finals at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo last month (l. to Nadal). Last year Wawrinka came into Paris with a 6-4 record on clay. The last player other than Nadal to win back-to-back titles at Roland Garros was Gustavo Kuerten in 2000-01.
RAFA EYES 10th TITLE – Nadal attempts to win his 10th Roland Garros title in 12 years as he comes in with a 70-2 career record. Nadal’s only losses have come to Robin Soderling in the fourth round on May 31, 2009 and to Djokovic in the quarter-finals on June 3, 2015 (on Nadal’s birthday). In 2014, the Spaniard became the first player to win five consecutive titles at Roland Garros. He also won four in a row from 2005-08. Bjorn Borg is the only other player to win four consecutive titles. He did it from 1978-81. Nadal comes into Roland Garros with a 19-4 clay-court record on the season, having won back-to-back titles at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo (d. Monfils) and Barcelona (d. Nishikori). In his last two tournaments, he lost in the semi-finals at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid (l. to Murray) and the quarter-finals at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome (l. to Djokovic). He is seeded in the Top 4 for the 11th time in 12 years (No. 6 last year).
KING OF ROLAND GARROS – In 2012, Nadal passed six-time winner Bjorn Borg with the most titles in Roland Garros history (since 1925). Two years ago he won for the ninth time.
TOUGH TO BEAT IN FIVE – Nadal has a sparkling 93-2 career record in best-of-five set matches on clay. His only losses were to Soderling in the fourth round in four sets in 2009 and last year to Djokovic in the quarter-finals. He’s been extended to five sets on clay only four times in his career, defeating Guillermo Coria in the 2005 Rome final and Federer in the 2006 Rome final (both 7-6 in the fifth) along with John Isner at Roland Garros in the first round in 2011 and Djokovic in the semi-finals in 2013.
CLAY-COURT DOMINATOR – Nadal has the best career match record on clay in the Open Era with a 363-34 mark (.914) and he’s 49-9 in clay finals. In 10 of the past 12 years he’s won at least two European clay-court titles coming into Roland Garros.
CAREER GRAND SLAM CLUB – World No. 1 Djokovic is looking to add his name in the history books by completing a career Grand Slam and become the first man to hold all four Grand Slam titles since Rod Laver in 1969. In the past nine years, Djokovic has reached the semi-finals or better seven times with a runner-up showing in three of the past four years: 2012, ’14-15. Six of his 11 losses at Roland Garros have come to Nadal, including from 2012-14. Djokovic is trying to become the eighth player to complete a career Grand Slam and join Nadal and Federer, who are active members of the Career Grand Slam Club. Other players to accomplish the feat are: Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, and Andre Agassi. Six other players have won three of the four Slam tournament titles except Roland Garros: Arthur Ashe, coach Boris Becker, Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg, John Newcombe, and Pete Sampras.
MOST ATTEMPTS TO TITLE – Djokovic is making his 12th appearance at Roland Garros. The most attempts before winning the Roland Garros title in the Open Era is 11, most recently by Wawrinka last year and Federer in 2009. The most attempts to win any Grand Slam title in the Open Era is 14 by Goran Ivanisevic, who won Wimbledon in 2001.
DJOKOVIC ON A ROLL – Djokovic enters Roland Garros with an ATP World Tour-best 37-3 match record (14-1 vs. Top 10) and five titles this season. Last year he came into Paris with a 22-match winning streak (35-2 record). In the opening month of the season, he won the Doha title and then captured his 11th career Grand Slam crown with a record-tying sixth title at the Australian Open. He also won ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in Indian Wells, Miami and Madrid. He will become the fifth player in the history of the Emirates ATP Rankings to hold No. 1 at least 200 weeks in his career and 100 consecutive weeks during Roland Garros (see below).
WEEKS AT NO. 1: Djokovic will reach 200 weeks at No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on May 23 and he will get to 100 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on May 30.
MURRAY IN FINE FORM – Murray is the No. 2 seed at Roland Garros for the first time in his career. The 29-year-old British star is coming off his 12th career ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Rome where he defeated No. 1 Djokovic for the first time on clay (1-4). He also was runner-up at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid (l. to Djokovic). Murray has compiled an outstanding 29-3 match record (.906) on clay and reached four finals (3-1) in 2015-16 after putting together a 63-37 match record (.630) without a final on the surface from 2005-14. Murray is a three-time semi-finalist at Roland Garros (2011, ’14-15).
FEDERER SLAM STREAK ENDS – Federer’s record of 65 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments played ended with his withdrawal. Federer’s streak began at the 2000 Australian Open and he is the only player to compete in every Grand Slam singles draw in this century. There are six other active players in the Top 10 longest consecutive Grand Slam tournaments played, including Feliciano Lopez (57), Fernando Verdasco (52) and Tomas Berdych (51).
KYRGIOS ON THE RISE — The youngest player in the Top 20 Emirates ATP Rankings at No. 19 is Nick Kyrgios, who is the No. 17 seed at Roland Garros. The 21-year-old Aussie has played well in Grand Slam tournaments since Wimbledon in 2014 when he advanced to the quarter-finals. Since that tournament, Kyrgios has compiled a 16-7 match record in the last seven Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the third round or better six times. He also reached the quarter-finals at the 2015 Australian Open. At Roland Garros last year he reached the third round (l. to Murray). This season, Kyrgios has put together a 21-7 match record (7-3 on clay), posting a career-best five wins over Top 10 opponents.
COUNTRY COUNT – There are 42 countries represented in the main draw with the host country France leading the way with 16 players followed by Spain with 15, USA 10, Argentina 9 and Germany 7. There were 16 qualifiers, three coming from Germany and two from Argentina and Spain. Qualifier Radek Stepanek, at 37 years, 5 months, is the oldest player in the draw. The youngest player is last year’s Roland Garros junior finalist Taylor Fritz at 18 years, 6 months.
ON THE SIDELINES – There were seven withdrawals from the original direct acceptance list: Pablo Andujar, Juan Martin del Potro, Roger Federer, Andreas Haider-Maurer, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Gael Monfils and Tommy Robredo.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Stan Wawrinka captured his first home title with a win in Geneva. Read
Dominic Thiem successfully defended his Nice title with a win over good friend Alexander Zverev. Read
Novak Djokovic has a chance to complete a career Grand Slam in Paris. Read
Andy Murray is prepared for a “tricky” start to Roland Garros. Read
Rafael Nadal will face a difficult opponent in his first-round match in Paris. Read
Veteran Radek Stepanek braved the odds to qualify for Roland Garros. Read
MILESTONE WATCH
Here is a look at the players approaching career milestones:
– Baghdatis: One win away from 300 in career
– Djokovic: $326,596 away from reaching $100 million in career (must reach QF)
– Isner: Two wins away from 300 in career
– Nadal: Two wins away from 200 in Grand Slam play in career; six wins away from 800 in career
– Seppi: One win away from 300 in career
BIRTHDAYS
22 May – Novak Djokovic (29)
24 May – Fabio Fognini (29)
27 May – Joao Sousa (28)
3 June – Rafael Nadal (30)
4 June – Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (33)