By Shrivathsa Sridhar
PARIS, May 25 (Reuters) – Four-times French Open champion Iga Swiatek charged into the second round with a comfortable victory on Monday, but another much-admired winner in Paris was unable to extend his stay as Stan Wawrinka bowed out of Roland Garros for the final time.
French favourite Gael Monfils, who like Wawrinka will end his career when the season concludes, was also unable to keep his campaign going and fell 6-2 6-3 3-6 2-6 6-0 to compatriot Hugo Gaston in the evening clash on Court Philippe Chatrier.
The main showcourt earlier proved to be the perfect stage for Swiatek to rediscover the rhythm that had gone missing from her game in recent months and she completed a 6-1 6-2 victory over Australian Emerson Jones.
“I’m really happy with the way I played,” said the Pole, who is bidding for her seventh Grand Slam title overall.
“It was a solid match from the beginning to the end. I technically knew how to play, so I just did it, and it was a good day, for sure.”
While Swiatek avoided the worst of the blazing afternoon sun, Paris Olympics gold medallist Zheng Qinwen struggled to cope with the heat and wilted in a 6-4 6-0 defeat by Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska.
Zheng has been inconsistent since an elbow surgery last year and told reporters later that she was affected by the loopy shots that Chwalinska used to disrupt her rhythm on the smaller, court seven venue.
“She has a good game on clay and the court was really small when she played high balls to me,” said Zheng, who is now set to drop from world number 56 to outside the top 100.
“I couldn’t go more back like on the big courts. That also makes a difference … honestly, the conditions were tough for me. The weather has been really hot.”
MEDICAL TIMEOUTS
Twice finalist Casper Ruud also struggled in the afternoon heat, squandering five match points in the third set and taking several medical timeouts before settling to beat Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin 6-2 7-6(5) 5-7 0-6 6-2.
“I felt like it was a heatstroke. I’d experienced something similar years ago when I played in Washington and had to retire in the third set,” Ruud said.
“I had that same feeling today in the fourth set, when I felt at times really dizzy and just really tired and walking around like a zombie.”
Rome champion Elina Svitolina was made to sweat, but the Ukrainian survived a huge scare to get past Anna Bondar 3-6 6-1 7-6 (10-3) before her husband Monfils took to the showcourt in an attempt to fly the flag for the veterans.
Wawrinka, also part of that experienced group at 41, went down in a 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4 defeat by Dutch lucky loser Jesper de Jong before being celebrated by fans on Court Simonne Mathieu and some of the game’s greats in a video tribute.
“I’m always surprised to receive so much love and so much support from other players or from the fans or from tournaments in general,” 2015 champion Wawrinka told reporters.
“I’ve been on tour for more than 20 years. When I was young, my dream was to be a professional player, to be in the top 100, to have the opportunity to play those tournaments.
“I never expected to achieve so much in the tennis, but I never put any limit on my career. I always wanted more. I always walk out to get more, push myself, push my own limits, and try to find my own way to get there.
“I’m happy and proud of what I achieved all these years. Today it was really tough. It’s never easy to say goodbye to something you love so much and you dedicate your life to.”
GROWING HYPE
While Wawrinka finished his Paris chapter, Spain’s Rafael Jodar began his journey with an emphatic 6-1 6-0 6-4 win over Aleksandar Kovacevic on his Roland Garros main draw debut to back up the growing hype around him.
Elsewhere, world number two Elena Rybakina made short work of Veronika Erjavec with a 6-2 6-2 win for her tour-leading 31st victory this year while Matteo Berrettini beat Marton Fucsovics 6-7(2) 7-5 6-1 6-2 in his first Paris appearance since 2021.
American fifth seed Ben Shelton downed Daniel Merida Aguilar 6-3 6-3 6-4, Russian Andrey Rublev beat Hamburg champion Ignacio Buse 6-3 6-7(6) 6-3 7-5 while Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis came through an epic against Terence Atmane 6-7(5) 6-2 4-6 6-3 7-5.
Former runner-up Jasmine Paolini, Daria Kasatkina, Anastasia Potapova and Amanda Anisimova and 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko all sealed routine victories to go through to the next round.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar and Julien Pretot in Paris; Additional reporting by Vincent Daheron; Editing by Pritha Sarkar and Sanjeev Miglani)
Comments