Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti made a late dash from Barcelona to Paris to take on Bernard Tomic in the French Open & was rewarded as he beat the Australian to make it to round two.
Former junior finalist to play Djokovic in second round
World No. 155 Jaume Munar provided a vision of Spain’s tennis future on Monday at Roland Garros, landing the biggest victory of his career in a battle of the generations.
The 21-year-old, in only his ninth tour-level match (3-6) and just his second at a Grand Slam championship, knocked out David Ferrer, a Spanish tennis legend of the past 15 years. Munar recovered from an 0-2 sets deficit and 3-5 in the deciding set to beat 2013 finalist Ferrer 3-6, 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(4), 7-5 in four hours and 15 minutes for a place in the second round.
“It’s the most important victory of my career,” said Munar. “Regardless of how the match went, I came back two-sets-to-love down to a role model in David Ferrer, doing it at Roland Garros, on clay and in a match like this. It has been a dream come true. This victory is a confirmation that I have taken a step forward.”
Former World No. 3 Ferrer, who was competing at Roland Garros for the 16th straight season (44-16), had never before lost in the first round in the French capital.
It is the highest-ranked victory of Munar’s career, in a completed tour-level match, following wins over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez at the 2015 German Tennis Championships (1-2 ret.) and Joao Sousa at last month’s Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (6-4, 3-6, 7-5).
Munar is currently the 13th-placed player from Spain, which boast nine in the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings. The 2014 junior Roland Garros finalist will next challenge No. 20 seed Novak Djokovic, the 2016 champion, in the second round.
| French Open 2018 |
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| Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Dates: 27 May-10 June |
| Coverage: Daily live radio and text commentaries on BBC Radio 5 live, the BBC Sport website and app. |
Novak Djokovic made the second round of the French Open after beating Brazilian qualifier Rogerio Dutra Silva.
The former world number one, seeded 20th at Roland Garros, went 2-0 down at the start of the first two sets but recovered to come through 6-3 6-4 6-4.
The injury-hit Serb, 31, has not won a Grand Slam title since his victory in Paris in 2016.
Meanwhile Stan Wawrinka, another former champion who has struggled with injury, lost his opener.
The Swiss 23rd seed, who overcame Djokovic in the French Open final in 2015, was beaten 6-2 3-6 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 by Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
World number 12 Djokovic said before the tournament that his confidence had been knocked after suffering a recurring elbow problem, which required surgery in January.
He returned to training in March and fell to successive first-round defeats at Indian Wells and the Miami Open.
But the 12-time Grand Slam champion reached the semi-finals of the Italian Open earlier this month and looked fairly comfortable against Dutra Silva, the world number 134.
The Brazilian got off to the best possible start by breaking his opponent in the opening game, before Djokovic got into his stride.
Dutra Silva had his opponent rattled in the third set after they exchanged breaks, and Djokovic slammed a loose ball against the advertising boards in anger before apologising to the crowd for his reaction.
In the end, the Serb brought up three match points and served it out at the second attempt.
ATPWorldTour.com follows Ramos-Vinolas just days before his opening round match in Paris
I get asked all the time what day-to-day life is like as a player, what I do to prepare for events and what I eat. So now I’m going to answer all those questions that my friends, my fans and journalists have about a regular day on the ATP World Tour. For some background, I’m getting ready to make my eighth consecutive main draw appearance at Roland Garros. My opening round match is just a few days away. (No. 31 seed Ramos-Vinolas faces Mikhail Kukushkin on Monday).
6:30 am: My day begins. I get up and prepare a breakfast with gluten-free products. I’m not a Coeliac (a person with an autoimmune condition that affects the small intestine and must avoid gluten), I just feel better not ingesting gluten, milk or eggs. We’re sticking to a simple menu this morning: lots of fruit, turkey on bread, and a little rice for the carbs I’ll need ahead of a long day.
8:30 am:I leave the apartment I’m staying at and get to the Roland Garros grounds via the tournament’s official players’ transport vehicle and begin my daily warmup routine.
9 am: By this time I’m exercising at the facility’s gym and completing my joint stretches so that I’ll be loose when I step on the court for the first of two practice workouts I’ve scheduled for the day.
9:30 am: I’m on Court 5. My practice partner today is Benoit Paire. After a somewhat short but intense practice session, we take a selfie together! It’s just a fun way for us to look back and remember the moment.
12 pm: I take a shower and get ready for a Q&A session with the media. By 1:30, it’ll be time for lunch. Today I’ll have gluten-free pasta with chicken as fuel ahead of my second workout of the day.
4 pm: I’m back out on the practice court. This time I’m booked to train with Fernando Verdasco for an hour. Afterward, I take some pictures with my coaches, Jose Maria Diaz and Juan Ros, and also some with Fernando and his coach Guillermo Alcaide and his physiotherapist/physical trainer Javier Bustos Hernan.
6 pm: I’ve done all the work I’ve had to do at the club, so now it’s time to head back to where I’m staying. Before I get there, though, I have to make a stop at the supermarket. This year, my team decided not to stay at the players’ hotel; we rented an apartment so that means we have to cook and prepare the meals ourselves.
8 pm: It’s dinner time! We’ve made salad, along with baked chicken and rice for the last meal of the day.
8:45 pm: My physiotherapist stops by the apartment to provide general treatment and get me ready for tomorrow. Today was a long day and I can use the rest. I’ll be in bed and call it a night by 11.
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Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka – winners of 12 of the past 13 Roland Garros titles – all will be in action on Monday as first-round play continues in Paris.
The top-seeded Nadal commences another attempt at history this fortnight. The Spaniard is trying to become the first man – and only the second player – in history to win 11 singles titles at any Grand Slam tournament. Australian Margaret Court won the Australian Open 11 times, including six before the Open Era began in April 1968 (1960-66, 1969-1971, 1973).
Nadal meets a familiar opponent on Court Philippe-Chatrier in Italian Simone Bolelli. The two have faced off five times in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, and Nadal has won all five, including a first-round contest at the 2012 Roland Garros, during which Nadal lost only five games.
Read More: Moya: ‘My Belief In Rafa Is At An All-Time High’
Djokovic, a potential challenger to Nadal in Paris, will look to pick up where he left off in Rome at the season’s third and final ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tournament. The Serbian reached his first quarter-final and semi-final of the season at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia earlier this month (l. to Nadal).
The 2016 Roland Garros champion meets Brazilian qualifier Rogerio Dutra Silva, who’s no stranger to the red dirt. Almost 75 per cent of the his 30 tour-level wins have come on clay (22/30), according to his FedEx ATP Win/Loss Record. Djokovic won their only prior FedEx ATP Head2Head matchup in straight sets at the 2012 US Open.
Stan Wawrinka has looked less convincing in recent times, as the Swiss continues his comeback from two knee surgeries last August. Wawrinka lost in the quarter-finals of the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open last week to eventual champion Marton Fucsovics of Hungary.
It was Wawrinka’s third clay-court match of the year, and he was contesting back-to-back matches for the first time since February at the Diema Xtra Sofia Open. But perhaps returning to the site of his second Grand Slam title (2015 Roland Garros) will help Wawrinka. The 33-year-old, who fell in last year’s final to Nadal, kicks off play on Court Suzanne-Lenglen against Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Wawrinka is 18-2 in his past three Roland Garros appearances.
View Monday’s Schedule
In other action, Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon titlist Dominic Thiem will go for his 30th match win of the season against qualifier Ilya Ivashka of Belarus. The seventh-seeded Thiem has reached the semi-finals the past two years.
Twenty-seventh seed and 2016 quarter-finalist Richard Gasquet meets Italy’s Andreas Seppi; 13th seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain faces Uzbekistani Denis Istomin; and Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, the 11th seed, meets French wild card Calvin Hemery.
Monday will also feature a number of compatriots battling on la terre battue. Ninth seed John Isner of the U.S. meets 22-year-old Noah Rubin, who won the USTA’s wild-card challenge to make his Roland Garros debut. #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe will play 12th seed Sam Querrey; and Spain’s David Ferrer, 2013 finalist, meets #NextGenATP Jaume Munar.
Read More: Courtside and Beyond, Nadal Supports #NextGenATP Munar
| French Open 2018 |
|---|
| Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Dates: 27 May-10 June |
| Coverage: Daily live radio and text commentaries on BBC Radio 5 live, the BBC Sport website and app. |
Germany’s Alexander Zverev cruised into the second round of the French Open with a straight sets victory over unseeded Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis.
The 21-year-old second seed needed only an hour and 11 minutes to prevail 6-1 6-1 6-2 against the world number 92.
Zverev is looking for his first Grand Slam trophy having won eight singles titles on the ATP tour circuit.
David Goffin survived a scare in his first round match, battling back from two sets down to beat Robin Haase.
The eighth seed from Belgium appeared to be on his way out of the tournament but he regained his composure to beat Dutchman Haase 4-6 4-6 6-4 6-1 6-0.
Elsewhere Lucas Pouille, Grigor Dimitrov and Kei Nishikori were among the other seeds who progressed on day one.
Find out how to get into tennis in our special guide.
French number one Pouille beat Daniil Medvedev of Russia 6-2 6-3 6-4, while Japan’s Nishikori earned a 7-6 (7-0) 6-4 6-3 win against Maxime Janvier of France.
Dimitrov, the fourth seed, won 6-1 6-4 7-6 (7-1) against lucky loser Mohamed Safwat, who only found out he was playing an hour before the match was due to start.
The youngest male opponent in the competition, 19-year-old French wildcard Corentin Moutet, beat the oldest male, 39-year-old Czech Ivo Karlovic, in straight sets.
Moutet, one of six teenagers in the main draw, won 7-6 (9-7) 6-2 7-6 (7-5).
| French Open 2018 |
|---|
| Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Dates: 27 May-10 June |
| Coverage: Daily live radio and text commentaries on BBC Radio 5 live, the BBC Sport website and app. |
Britain’s Johanna Konta says being reminded of her poor French Open record by the media does not “make it easy” for her at Roland Garros.
Konta, seeded 22nd, was beaten 6-4 6-3 by Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva – her fourth successive first-round loss at the tournament.
The British number one has never won a main-draw match in Paris.
“I don’t think it helps if it keeps being said: ‘Oh, she hasn’t done well there before,'” she said.
However, Konta’s results on her least favourite surface over the past two years mean it is unsurprising they have been highlighted.
She only won two matches on the red dirt last summer and, although she showed encouraging signs in Madrid and Rome earlier this year, it has been compounded by her loss against world number 93 Putintseva.
Her form on this surface contrasts sharply with her success on grass, where she reached the Wimbledon semi-finals last summer, and the three WTA titles she has won on hard courts.
After losing to Putintseva, she asked journalists whether they felt it was fair to keep bringing up her previous form in the main draw at Roland Garros.
“If every time you went in to work – because, obviously, you travel – and let’s say for a few years your pieces of writing have been crap every time when you come into Roland Garros.
“Right? Just crap. And then your colleagues start to say: ‘You know, you really suck around that time.’ And that happens, you know, for a few years.
“How would you guys digest that?
Find out how to get into tennis in our special guide.
“It’s not something I would like to buy into, and I don’t think I do. However, you guys don’t make it easy.”
In the build-up to this year’s tournament, Konta attempted to build positivity by highlighting her victories in the qualifying competition for Roland Garros in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
She qualified for the main draw in 2015 – when she was ranked 143rd – going on to lose to the higher-placed Czech Denisa Allertova in a hard-fought, three-set match.
However, defeat by Putintseva means she has been eliminated by players ranked much lower in each of the past three years.
“Out of my four main draw matches that I’ve played here, this is probably the one I’m most disappointed in terms of the level that I played,” Konta said.
“So, for me, this one is a bit harder to take in that way.”
Russell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent
It was so welcome to hear what Johanna Konta really thinks: leaning back in her chair, with her arms behind her head, she conjured up an analogy aimed at her immediate audience.
It revealed her frustration at some of the conclusions the media draw, and it served as a reminder of how difficult it can be to shut out the surround sound.
On court at the moment, it seems to be a case of taking two steps forward, and then one step back.
Konta is never likely to be a player who is able to adapt her game plan significantly during a match, but a little more subtlety and conservatism would not go amiss at times.