Grand Slam champions Sam Stosur and Svetlana Kuznetsova quickly made their way into the second round of the French Open yesterday, both winning in straight sets on the opening day of the clay-court tournament.
Sixth seed Stosur, who won last year’s US Open title and reached the final at Roland Garros in 2010, beat Elena Baltacha of Britain 6-4, 6-0 in the first match on the tournament’s main court.
“It’s a bit of an early start, but always nice to get through it now,” Stosur said. “You have the whole day and whatever else to recover and, yeah, enjoy.”
Photo: AFP
Kuznetsova won the French Open title in 2009 and the US Open in 2004, but she is seeded No. 26 this year. Against Mirjana Lucic of Croatia, the Russian faced little trouble, despite being broken twice in the second set.
No. 10 Angelique Kerber of Germany and No. 20 Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic also advanced to the second round, along with US players Melanie Oudin and Irina Falconi.
Later, seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams and 2008 French Open winner Ana Ivanovic were due to play their first-round matches.
None of the top three men were in action in Paris on the opening day, but former Grand Slam champions Andy Roddick and Juan Martin del Potro were on the schedule.
Top-ranked Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are on court today, while Rafael Nadal is scheduled to begin tomorrow.
Fabio Fognini of Italy became the first man to advance, beating Adrian Mannarino of France 6-0, 7-5, 6-1. No. 21 Marin Cilic of Croatia was next, defeating Daniel Munoz-De La Nava of Spain 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.
Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2003 French Open champion, also moved into the second round. The Spaniard beat Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigy of France 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.
The French Open is the only Grand Slam tournament that starts on a Sunday. The other three all start on Monday.
“I don’t think it’s too big a deal now that it’s more of a proper schedule,” Stosur said. “I think the first year there was only a handful of matches and, yeah, if you were on the schedule then, it really didn’t feel like the tournament started. Nobody else was thinking that the tournament had started.”
Stosur converted five of her eight break points and only briefly allowed Baltacha back into the match by being broken while serving for the first set at 5-3. The Australian broke right back to take the set.
In the second set, Baltacha won only four points on her serve, allowing Stosur to advance easily.
Kuznetsova raced through the first set oand then held on to win the second to reach the next round. After leading 3-0 in the second set, Lucic broke twice, but Kuznetsova then won the next three games.
The 30-year-old Lucic reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 1999, but she is now 11-44 against players ranked in the top 30 in her career.
Meanwhile, with razor-sharp claws and a top swooping speed of 300kph, eight falcons have been unleashed at Roland Garros to rid the French Open of its pigeon pest problem.
With pigeon droppings claimed to alter the trajectory of the ball and other bird-scaring tactics having failed, the French Tennis Federation turned to falcons.
“We want to clear the pigeons off, not kill them,” falconer Ludwig Verschatse said. “When we arrived, there were about 30 settled pigeons who have since left, but we have to stay for the duration of the tournament, because pigeons are stupid. They don’t transmit the information to their friends.”
The Major League Baseball World Series trophy is headed to Los Angeles, but the party is extending all the way to Japan. People milled around local train stations yesterday morning in Tokyo as newspaper extras were ready to roll off the presses, proclaiming Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as world champions along with their Dodgers teammates after a stirring Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees. The 30-year-old is a national hero in Japan whose face adorns billboards and TV adverts all over the country. Ohtani this year became the first player in history to hit 50 home runs and
STAR IN DOUBT: After partially dislocating his shoulder in a feetfirst slide into second base, the status of Japanese slugger Ohtani is uncertain for Game 3 as he undergoes tests Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Saturday walked back to his dugout and made the slightest tip of his cap to cheering fans. He left Japan for moments like this, an opportunity to put the Los Angeles Dodgers in control of the World Series. Yamamoto allowed one hit over 6-1/3 innings and Freddie Freeman homered for the second straight night as Los Angeles beat the New York Yankees 4-2 for a 2-0 Series lead. However, the Dodgers head to New York uncertain whether Shohei Ohtani can play after their biggest star partially dislocated his left shoulder on a slide at second base. “We’re going to get
Three-time reigning world champion Kaori Sakamoto on Saturday led a Japanese podium sweep at Skate Canada, locking up a second straight Canadian women’s title despite two falls in her free skate. Sakamoto, who led 19-year-old American Alysa Liu after the short program, looked a little tight during her jazzy free skate, falling on a Salchow jump and again on a triple flip while fighting to hang on to a few other moves. Her second-best free skate score of 126.24 was enough for gold in the second Grand Prix event of the season in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She finished with 201.21 points, well ahead
Kevin Durant and Devin Booker on Monday combined for 63 points as the Phoenix Suns sent LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers tumbling to their first defeat of the season. Booker bagged 33 points and Durant 30 to give the Suns a thrilling 109-105 win at Phoenix’s Footprint Center, avenging the Lakers’ 123-116 win over the Suns in Los Angeles on Friday last week. The Lakers arrived in Phoenix buoyed by an impressive 3-0 start to the campaign under new head coach J.J. Redick. They looked poised to keep that run going after making a blistering start, sprinting into an early 26-8