Tsitsipas, Medvedev open French with wins
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Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2021 French runner-up, has overcome a two-set deficit against Lorenzo Musetti to advance to the second round at Roland Garros — a year after blowing a two-set lead in the final against Novak Djokovic.
Tsitsipas needed more than three and a half hours to turn things around and get past 20-year-old Musetti of Italy 5-7 4-6 6-2 6-3 6-2 as the calendar flipped from Tuesday to Wednesday.
“It was a great first round. I’m going to keep working hard to improve and build a relationship with the crowd here,” Tsitsipas, who set up a meeting against Czech Zdenek Kolar, said on Court Philippe Chatrier.
“My serve was really off … maybe not the first few games of the match, but after, it completely collapsed. It wasn’t there. That threw me off a lot.
“Once I really found my momentum … I knew that it can be a different match.
“It would have been kind of not fair, from my perspective, to have a different outcome.”
Fourth seed Tsitsipas has not lost in the first round in Paris since his 2017 debut. The 23-year-old from Greece has progressed further each year, getting to the second round in 2018, the fourth in 2019, the semi-finals in 2020, and then losing the title match to Djokovic in five sets a year ago.
Second-seeded Daniil Medvedev though took less than 100 minutes to progress but world No.15 Denis Shapovalov lost to Danish teenager Holger Rune.
Medvedev brushed aside beat an injured Facundo Bagnis 6-2 6-2 6-2 while Shapovalov lost 6-3 6-1 6-4 7-6 (7-4) to Rune, another promising Scandinavian.
Once only Swedes – and plenty of them – figured in the tennis elite from the region. Now there is only 95-ranked Michael Ymer from Sweden in the mens top 100. Above him is a Finn, Emil Ruusuvuori (61) who beat Ugo Humbert 6-2 2-6 6-7 (7-4) 6-4 6-2 to progress, Rune (40) and Norway’s Casper Ruud (8).
Ruud was the day’s villain, bringing down the curtain on the career of French favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who said he will retire after the tournament.
The 37-year-old took the first set, but by the end the ailing two-time semi-finalist could barely serve as Ruud won 6-7 (6-7) 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 7-6 (7-0).
Gilles Simon’s last French Open will continue after a marathon victory over No.16 seed, and two-time US Open semi-finalist, Pablo Carreno Busta.
The 37-year-old Frenchman delayed his retirement for at least another match by winning 6-4 6-4 4-6 1-6 6-4 in a little under four hours.
Simon is a former top-10 player and two-time grand slam quarter-finalist, currently ranked No.158, and needed a wildcard invitation from the French tennis federation to get into the field.
Russian seventh seed Andrey Rublev survived a first-set scare to move past Kwon Soon-woo 6-7 (7-5) 6-3 6-2 6-4.
The 24th-ranked Frances Tiafoe finally earned his first victory at the French after six first-round defeats by beating Benjamin Bonzi 7-5 7-5 7-6 (7-5) and next faces Belgium’s David Goffin.
With agencies.
AAP
