Watson & Gibbs go to deciding set

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.

Kyrgios through but unhappy

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.

Source link