Eastbourne International: Elena Rybakina to compete before Wimbledon title defence
Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina will compete at Eastbourne in June as part of her title defence preparations.
Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina will compete at Eastbourne in June as part of her title defence preparations.
Tunisian seventh seed Ons Jabeur puts a lack of recent matches behind her to beat Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti in the French Open first round.
Last year’s Roland Garros finalist Casper Ruud is up and running at the clay-court major in 2023, dispatching Swedish qualifier Elias Ymer 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the second round for the sixth consecutive season.
The fourth seed, who lost against Rafael Nadal in the title match 12 months ago, quickly found his range on his return to Paris. The Norwegian hit freely on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, outmanoeuvring World No. 155 Ymer with his mixture of spins to advance after two hours and seven minutes.
“It was tough. The first match back here since one of the best tournament’s of my life, you have to try to defend what you did last year, so I was a bit nervous at times,” Ruud said in his on-court interview. “But I managed to calm down and as the match went on I felt a little better. I had to stay focused all the way and I am very happy happy to be through in straight sets.”
Ruud struck 28 winners compared to 17 from Ymer, while he broke the Swede’s serve eight times to earn his 14th win at Roland Garros.
“It is great to be back in Paris and play in front of the French crowd,” Ruud added. “They are very passionate. I had a great experience last year making the final and as every match went on I felt more supporters were coming to watch and support me.”
Ruud has had a modest season by his standards, failing to win consecutive matches at 10 of the 12 events he has played. However, the 24-year-old’s best results have come on clay, with Ruud capturing his 10th tour-level trophy in Estoril in April before he advanced to the semi-finals in Rome.
The World No. 4, who is chasing his maiden Grand Slam title this fortnight, will next meet Alexander Bublik or Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri.
In other early action on Day 3, Tommy Paul defeated #NextGenATP Swiss Dominic Stricker 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. The American, who advanced to the semi-finals at the Australian Open in January, hit 25 winners and committed 17 unforced errors to clinch his 18th win of the season.
Paul, currently 11th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, will play Geneva champion Nicolas Jarry in the second round. The Chilean defeated Hugo Dellien 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
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Dominic Thiem is eager to continue his return to form despite a tough five-set loss to Pedro Cachin on Monday in the first round at Roland Garros.
More than a year ago Thiem began his comeback from a wrist injury against Cachin. The Austrian believes he is in a much better place now.
“There’s no comparison. Back then I was not ready to play. I shouldn’t have even played. Today I was definitely ready to play, to fight. That’s what I did obviously,” Thiem said. “I didn’t start well at all. How should I say, I was very tight. What I was expecting, I had very, very good practice sets. but most of the times in the first real match it’s not that easy, and that’s what happened.
“I was fighting back great, starting to play a bit better. And then, yeah, I missed to do the last step, to reward myself, to give myself a chance to play a second round maybe a little bit looser. I was not able to do it.”
During Thiem’s post-match press conference, a reporter recalled the Austrian once saying after losing a Roland Garros final to Rafael Nadal that he had gone from “tennis heaven” to “tennis hell”. His journey from near the top of the sport to rock bottom due to his wrist injury has felt similar, he said.
“It was exactly like that, from tennis heaven to tennis hell, and now hopefully back to tennis heaven. It was really, really great experiences like in the previous years, and now also it’s a very good challenge what I’m facing right now,” Thiem said. “It’s tough obviously, but I’m really convinced with the way that I’m on right now, especially the last six weeks. That’s when I started to be really into my career again, really push myself every day to the limit.
“But, on the same hand, six weeks is not enough yet to make a deep run here. I have to continue working like that. Yeah, today I failed to reward myself. Hopefully the next tournament I can do it.”
The 29-year-old might have lost in Paris, but the two-time Roland Garros finalist is upbeat about what is to come. The No. 92 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings is determined to continue improving.
“[It was] changing perspectives again and then changing my attitude again towards the game from thinking about or thinking of giving 100 per cent, but not really [doing] it, to really [doing] it again. That’s what changed,” Thiem said. “The last six weeks were really good. But, yeah, obviously it’s not enough yet to play well, to play well in a tournament like that. But, yeah, again, I feel that I’m on the right track again. Today I just failed to reward myself.”
Defending champion Iga Swiatek begins her French Open campaign on day three as she chases a third Roland Garros title in four years.
Novak Djokovic begins his campaign for a record 23rd men’s Grand Slam singles title with a win over Aleksandar Kovacevic.
Jannik Sinner was ruthlessly efficient in his first-round win at Roland Garros on Monday evening.
The Italian cruised past home favourite Alexandre Muller 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 to reach the second round at the clay-court major for the fourth straight year. Sinner has never fallen short of the fourth round in three previous appearances in Paris.
The eighth seed hit 30 winners and saved the two break points he faced to defeat Muller on Court Philippe-Chatrier. Next up will be German Daniel Altmaier, who eliminated Marc-Andrea Huesler 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
Sinner will be plenty familiar with Altmaier, who at last year’s US Open pushed him to five sets in a three-hour, 35-minute tussle. The Italian will try to keep his opponent’s aggressive one-handed backhand at bay.
In other action late in the day, #NextGenATP Frenchman Luca Van Assche ousted 2018 Roland Garros semi-finalist Marco Cecchinato 6-1, 6-1, 6-3. It was the 19-year-old’s main draw debut at this event after losing in the first round of qualifying in each of the past two years.
The teen won the Roland Garros boys’ singles title two years ago. The player he defeated in the final, Arthur Fils, claimed his first ATP Tour trophy on Saturday in Lyon, but was unable to advance in Paris. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the 29th seed, defeated Fils 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to set a second-round clash with Van Assche.
The first round reaches its climax on Tuesday at Roland Garros, where second seed Daniil Medvedev, the in-form Holger Rune and 2022 semi-finalist Alexander Zverev all begin their campaigns in the singles draw at the clay-court major.
ATPTour.com breaks down some of the standout matches on the Day 3 schedule in Paris.
Holger Rune announced himself on the Grand Slam stage last year at Roland Garros, where the then-19-year-old took out Denis Shapovalov and Stefanos Tsitsipas en route to the quarter-finals on event debut. Rune returns as the sixth seed, a four-time ATP Tour champion, and one of the in-form players on the ATP Tour.
A 13-3 record across the European clay season suggests the Dane is primed for another deep Roland Garros run, but he faces an unfamiliar challenge first up in Christopher Eubanks. It will be Rune’s maiden ATP Head2Head meeting with the American, who will step on Court Simonne-Mathieu at a career-high No. 74 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
Rune will hope his ability to power his groundstrokes through the Parisian clay can hurry Eubanks, who is making his main draw debut at Roland Garros. The Dane possesses an all-around game that has helped him notch victories against Medvedev, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Ruud so far this clay season.
Medvedev arrived in Paris seemingly better-placed to forge a deep run at the clay-court major than ever before. The second seed has racked up a 10-2 record on the European clay across April and May, a run that culminated with his maiden tour-level title on the surface at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.
The man charged with stopping Medvedev on Tuesday in Paris is the World No. 172 Thiago Seyboth Wild. The Brazilian battled through qualifying to reach the main draw at Roland Garros for the first time in four attempts, and he will have to hit his best level again if he is going to make an impact in just his second ATP Head2Head meeting with a Top 10 opponent.
Medvedev’s huge serve and relentless retrieving skills at the baseline shone throughout his Rome run. With a 2-4 record in first-round matches at Roland Garros, the 27-year-old will likely look to those strengths again to ward off a potential upset and kick-start his bid for a second major title.
Zverev returns to the Roland Garros clay for the first time since he rolled his ankle badly and was forced to retire from his 2022 semi-final against Rafael Nadal. The German has struggled to find his best level since returning to ATP Tour in January, but fourth-round runs at the ATP Masters 1000 events in Monte-Carlo, Madrid and Rome suggest the German is on his way back to form.
On Tuesday he meets another player settling back into match action after injury, Lloyd Harris. Like Zverev the 26-year-old did not compete post-Roland Garros last season, after undergoing wrist surgery. Harris has racked up a 10-5 record on the ATP Challenger Tour since his return at the start of the year, and the former World No. 31 will see the Zverev clash as a good measure of his post-injury progress.
Zverev leads 3-0 in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series, but the 22nd seed will need to be sharp on return to counter Harris’ booming serve as he looks to improve his 23-7 match record at Roland Garros.
Can Casper Ruud bring his best to Roland Garros? The 2022 finalist has had a modest season by his standards so far but will hope to improve his 13-5 record at the clay-court major when he takes on qualifier Elias Ymer on Court Suzanne-Lenglen. Paris could be the perfect setting for a maiden major title for Ruud, who holds fond memories of his charge to his maiden Grand Slam final in the French capital.
“It’s nice, being back here, [living] through the memories that I have from last year and the belief that I can do well here obviously grows when you have done it at least once before,” said Ruud in his pre-tournament press conference. “I’m hoping for a good run now in these two weeks.”
Taylor Fritz is the other Top 10 star in action on Tuesday. The World No. 9 takes on fellow American Michael Mmoh as he chases a second-round spot for the fourth consecutive year. The 16th seed Tommy Paul, a semi-finalist at January’s Australian Open, meets 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals competitor Dominic Stricker.
The 28th seed Grigor Dimitrov faces qualifier Timofey Skatov, while home favourites in action include Gael Monfils, who meets Sebastian Baez. Richard Gasquet and Arthur Rinderknech also clash in an all-French affair.
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