Maria Sharapova reached the French Open second round yesterday at a damp and chilly Roland Garros as Japanese hope Kei Nishikori became the tournament’s first major casualty.
Sharapova, seeded seven and the 2012 champion, needed just over an hour to beat fellow Russian Ksenia Pervak, the world No. 156, 6-1, 6-2.
The 27-year-old, who lost last year’s final to Serena Williams, looked comfortable under the cloudy conditions on the Philippe Chatrier court, breaking her opponent five times.
Photo: AFP
Sharapova will next face Bulgaria’s 2010 Wimbledon semi-finalist Tsvetana Pironkova.
“First matches at Grand Slams are always tough, no matter how prepared you are, no matter how many matches you’ve played,” said Sharapova, now 13-1 on clay this year with titles in Stuttgart, Germany, and Madrid. “There is always a bit more tension in that type of Grand Slam atmosphere. It’s certainly more special, especially when you walk out on court.”
Japanese ninth seed Nishikori was left feeling as miserable as the Paris weather as he crashed out in the first round, clearly still suffering from his recent back injury.
Photo: EPA
Nishikori, 24, coached by 1989 champion Michael Chang, was the first Japanese man in 75 years to make the fourth round in Paris last year, but yesterday there was never any sign that he would repeat that feat as he went down 7-6 (7/4), 6-1, 6-2 to Slovakia’s Martin Klizan.
Nishikori won the Barcelona clay-court title last month, but then had to quit the Madrid Masters final against Rafael Nadal with a back injury that also forced him out of the Rome Masters.
The world No. 10 looked distinctly half-fit on Court 1 where he was broken 10 times, hit 10 double faults and committed 40 unforced errors.
Photo: EPA
Left-handed Klizan, 24, one of six former junior champions in the main draw, goes on to face Robin Haase of the Netherlands.
After rain delayed the start of yesterday’s program by more than an hour, play was halted again barely two hours later when the heavens reopened, but there was still time for Dominika Cibulkova, the Slovakian ninth seed, Italian 12th seed Flavia Pennetta and German 16th seed Sabine Lisicki to progress.
Meanwhile, defending champion Nadal remained at the center of a French Open scheduling row.
Nadal, who has a phenomenal record of eight titles, 59 match wins and just one loss in Paris, had his opening match against US wild-card Robby Ginepri, the world No. 279, shifted out to Suzanne Lenglen court, while Roland Garros’ showpiece Philippe Chatrier court was staging title rival Novak Djokovic’s match against Joao Sousa and Stanislas Wawrinka’s clash against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Nadal claimed at the weekend that he found conditions on Chatrier to be different this year.
“I think they made the court new, so it’s like the clay gets a little bit more fixed. It was moving around a little bit too much and some small stones make the movement a little bit more difficult, but probably they will be ready for the tournament now. They can fix it. They are specialists, no?” Nadal said.
However, his complaints stunned ground staff at Roland Garros.
“I was surprised because nobody else had complained about Chatrier,” Gerard Tiquet, the man in charge of the courts for 22 years, told newspaper L’Equipe.
A new surface of clay has been laid on the court which should improve day by day, added Tiquet, who said he had some sympathy with the Spaniard.
“I understand his fears. Nadal needs to anchor his feet on the clay. I also believe he is worried about a repeat of the problems he had with the blue clay in Madrid in 2012. The clay there was slippy and grainy,” Tiquet said.
Remy Azemar, the assistant referee, insisted that schedulers had to balance the needs of the players as well as the fans.
“There was a discussion. We wanted to have a balance with Nadal on one court and Djokovic on the other,” Azemar said. “Also, Monday is club presidents day and most of them will be on Suzanne Lenglen. We want to make sure they have a good day with two French players [Virginie Razzano and Gilles Simon] also scheduled there.”
On Sunday, Serena Williams, the top seed in the women’s draw who won the title last year to add to her 2002 maiden triumph in the French capital, started her 13th Roland Garros with a 6-2, 6-1 win over French wild-card Alize Lim.
Three days after the close friends were snapping “selfies” of themselves at the players’ party at the Eiffel Tower, Williams fired 37 winners past Lim, the world No. 138, although a sloppy final game left her relying on a fifth match point to seal victory.
The win extended Williams’ record in opening rounds of the majors to 54-1 — her only blip being a first-round exit to Virginie Razzano in Paris three years ago.
“We train in the same facilities. We just kind of all get along. We go to dinner every now and then. So it’s interesting. It’s fun,” the American said.
Williams next faces Spain’s Garbine Muguruza for a place in the third round, where she could then play big sister Venus. Venus next faces Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia.
It was also a good day for veterans on the ATP Tour.
Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, 35, beat Facundo Arguello of Argentina 6-7 (8/10), 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 and Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen, 32, also needed five sets to see off Michal Przysiezny of Poland, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-4.
Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych eased past Canada’s Peter Polansky 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 on the back of 50 winners and 15 aces and he next meets Kazakhstan’s Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
French 13th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a semi-finalist last year, beat compatriot Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-6 (7/4), 7-5, 6-2.
In the women’s singles competition, Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, the 2010 champion and 2011 runner-up, crashed out, with the 33-year-old slumping to a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to Croatia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.
Only one seeded player lost on Sunday with Romania’s Monica Niculescu accounting for Estonian 25th seed Kaia Kanepi 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.
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