Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun exited the French Open men’s singles in the first round yesterday, but not before thrilling the crowd in Paris in his match against local favorite Jeremy Chardy.
Chardy eventually defeated Lu 6-4, 6-1, 6-7 (3/7), 3-6, 11-9 after the Taiwanese fought back from two sets and match point down to take the first-round match the distance.
As the score suggests, Chardy got off to a flyer at Roland Garros, but Lu managed to drag himself back into the match in the latter stages, with the two finishing fairly evenly matched.
Photo: AFP
Chardy hit 68 winners compared with Lu’s 49, but the Frenchman also committed 69 unforced errors as opposed to Lu’s 57.
Lu’s serve was also slightly more reliable, but with the backing of the crowd in Paris Chardy eventually won through after a marathon that lasted more than four hours.
Three former women’s Grand Slam champions and a young British hope also reached the second round yesterday, as Rafael Nadal, seeking a record seventh men’s crown, made his entrance.
Photo: Reuters
Maria Sharapova whipped Romania’s Alexandra Cadantu 6-0, 6-0 in just 48 minutes as the Russian second seed, seeking to lift the only major she has never won, cruised toward a meeting with Japan’s Ayumi Morita for a place in the last 32.
Morita defeated Polona Hercog of Slovenia 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Clad in black and seeking her third clay-court title of the season, Sharapova was no match for a 74th-ranked rival facing a top-10 opponent for the first time in a career which stalled in 2008 amid financial problems.
Photo: Reuters
The outclassed Romanian failed to hit a single winner.
Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, the fourth-seeded Czech, thrashed Australia’s Ashleigh Barty 6-1, 6-2 in 54 minutes to join Sharapova in the next round, where she meets either Urszula Radwanska of Poland, who defeated Pauline Parmentier of France 6-4, 6-3.
Also marching on was 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy, seeded 14, who defeated Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-3, 6-1.
Schiavone, last year’s beaten finalist, advanced to a meeting with Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria, after she rallied to beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, after ousting Date-Krumm — a decade her elder — who could not stay the pace after breaking serve in the opening game on a sparsely-populated, but sunny Philippe Chatrier show court.
Guernsey-born Briton Heather Watson, who managed to reach the second round on her debut last year, thereby entering the top 100, got off to a flyer against Russian Elena Vesnina, romping through her opening set, before staying her ground to win 6-2, 6-4 and earn a match-up against Germany’s 25th seed Julia Goerges.
Watson slid around the red dirt as if the clay courts are her back yard, her recently remodeled service clicking beautifully into place — particularly in a first set that saw her not lose a single point on first serve.
Nadal was 6-2, 3-0 up against Italian journeyman Simone Bolelli as at press time, while British fourth seed Andy Murray was starting his campaign later yesterday against Japan’s Tatsuma Ito.
An early men’s winner was Spanish sixth seed David Ferrer, who dismissed Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.
On Monday, Novak Djokovic’s bid for an historic Grand Slam enjoyed the perfect start.
Djokovic, bidding to become only the third man to hold all four majors at the same time and the first in 43 years, eased past Italian clay-court specialist Potito Starace 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, 6-1.
The world No. 1 already has the Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open crowns under wraps and a first French Open triumph would make him the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to complete the sweep.
“It’s a challenge, and something to embrace and to enjoy. It’s really too early to talk about getting my hands on the trophy, but it’s definitely a goal. Anything is possible,” said Djokovic, who next faces Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic.
Russia’s Alex Bogomolov Jr, suffering from cramp and grimacing in pain, retired from his first-round match against Frenchman Arnaud Clement when match point down.
Bogomolov Jr was about to serve while trailing 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (2/7), 4-5 and advantage Clement in the deciding set when he limped to the net to shake his opponent’s hand after 4 hours, 18 minutes.
He was booed by the crowd, before a sympathetic Clement, 34, asked them to stop.
“I could not move my legs. You don’t get a medical timeout for cramps,” a dejected Bogomolov told reporters. “My whole leg was straight. I couldn’t bend it. I couldn’t walk. I didn’t want to risk a potential ligament damage or something, and you can’t get a trainer for that.”
The Frenchman is next set to play Belgium’s David Goffin.
Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska took just 49 minutes to wrap up a 6-1, 6-0 win over Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovksi and she is scheduled to take on Venus Williams for a place in the last 32.
French eighth seed Marion Bartoli also went through, beating qualifier Karolina Plizkova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei won the opening set against 18th seed Flavia Pennetta, but the Italian rallied to win 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-2.
Vera Zvonareva, the 11th-seeded Russian, withdrew with a right shoulder injury, while German 12th seed Sabine Lisicki slumped to a 6-4, 6-3 defeat to Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US.
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