Australian Open champion Li Na yesterday followed male counterpart Stanislas Wawrinka out of the French Open in the first round, after she was stunned 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 by home-crowd favorite Kristina Mladenovic.
The second seed from China, who won the Roland Garros title in 2011, admitted that she had handed victory to the Frenchwoman through her own failings on another chilly day in Paris.
“I think it doesn’t matter who plays today against me, I always [would] lose the match. Today I just gave it away,” Li said. “Nobody says if you’re No. 2 in the world you have to win all the matches.” “The problem is myself, I don’t think I’m doing well on the court. I didn’t think totally what I should do, like especially I didn’t follow the game plan. In my mind I didn’t have any idea how to play the match,” she added.
Photo: EPA
It was the first time that both the men’s and women’s Grand Slam champions have been knocked out in the first round of the following major tournament.
Swiss third seed Wawrinka lost to Spain’s Guillermo Garcia Lopez in four sets on Monday.
Once dubbed the next big thing in French women’s tennis, Mladenovic saved two set points in the opener, lost focus in the second, but stepped up a gear in the decider to wrap it up on her second match point.
Photo: AFP
“It’s incredible, without you I couldn’t have done it,” a weeping Mladenovic told the cheering crowd. “When such a player comes back in the match, you know you will have to seize every opportunity.”
Another young Frenchwoman, Caroline Garcia, offered far fewer problems to 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic on the same court. The Serbian won 6-1, 6-3 to join 2009 title winner Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round.
In the men’s draw, last year’s runner-up and fifth seed David Ferrer eased through 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 against Dutchman Igor Sijsling.
The Spaniard, who beat world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the Monte Carlo quarter-finals last month, said he was not surprised by the early shocks.
“The tennis is very close, it’s normal sometimes to have surprises,” he said. “It’s difficult, this sport.”
No. 11 seed Grigor Dimitrov — one of the young players who was expected to challenge the likes of eight-time champion Nadal — found Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic too hot to handle in a 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) loss.
“Today he was all over the court. He was just hitting his shots, you know, penetrating every volley, low slice, serving really good. He always serves good,” Bulgaria’s Dimitrov said. “I just couldn’t find the rhythm, and I couldn’t achieve any of the little opportunities that I had in the match.”
Twelfth seed Richard Gasquet of France won 6-2, 6-1, 7-5 against Austria’s Bernard Tomic, while former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, who reached two quarter-finals in 13 visits before yesterday, lost 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 to Argentine Carlos Berlocq.
Nicolas Almagro of Spain — the 21st seed — withdrew from his match against Jack Sock of the US while trailing 5-0 in the first set.
Fourth-seed Simona Halep of Romania narrowly missed inflicting the first “double bagel” of the tournament after serving for the match when leading Alisa Kleybanova of Russia 6-0, 5-0, but she lost her concentration and gave up two games before winning on her first match point.
“I was thinking at 5-0 that I can win 6-0, 6-0, but wasn’t too good,” Halep said. “I was a little bit relaxed after that and it was cold.”
She next faces British qualifier Heather Watson, who beat Czech player Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-3, 6-4.
Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm, the rlder stateswoman of the WTA Tour at 43, saved four match points, but still went down 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 to 24th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.
US 15th seed Sloane Stephens beat China’s Shuai Peng 6-4, 7-6 (8) and Kuznetsova, the Russian 27th seed, eased through 6-3, 6-1 against Georgia’s Sofia Shapatava.
On Monday, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun was downed 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 by Adrian Mannarino, but the Taiwanese had a shot at redemption in the men’s doubles action yesterday, when he was to team up with Germany’s Benjamin Becker to take on French duo Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
As Wawrinka came back to earth with a thump on the sodden clay at Roland Garros on Monday, Novak Djokovic and Nadal both raced into the second round.
Second seed Djokovic played the funny man as he slithered to a 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 win over Portugal’s Joao Sousa as defending champion Nadal slipped into his customary role of cold-blooded assassin against Robbie Ginepri.
Djokovic had criticized the surface on the Philippe Chatrier show court for being too damp after several days of rain and Wawrinka got bogged down in the heavy conditions against an inspired opponent.
He is the first Australian Open champion to lose in the first round of the following French Open since Czech Petr Korda in 1998, and Wawrinka admitted the defeat had shown him how far he was from joining Nadal and Djokovic at the top of the game.
“The match wasn’t good at all,” said the Swiss, who was close to tears in the post-match interview. “I was trying to find something and I didn’t. I don’t have an answer why I didn’t play that good. It’s a tough loss, for sure.”
Wawrinka admitted a first Grand Slam title had changed his life and expectations more than he could have imagined.
“It’s a different story now and a different picture for my career. I need to put the puzzle back together and I didn’t find all the pieces yet. Everything was terrible today, I was completely flat,” he said.
Nadal, bidding for a record-extending ninth title at Roland Garros, hunted down wildcard Ginepri during a first set that ended 6-0 in the Spaniard’s favor.
The American greeted his capture of the first game of the second set with a clenched fist of mock celebration, but defeat was inevitable as he folded 6-0, 6-3, 6-0.
Djokovic was leading 4-1 when rain interrupted play and on the resumption, broke Sousa to love. He then recovered from 0-40 on his own serve to wrap up the first set with two crushing first serves.
Rain began to fall again with the Serb, who is strongly fancied to end Nadal’s hold on the title, preparing to serve for the set at 5-2. Djokovic sat, looking slightly ridiculous, in a white hooded waterproof jacket as the umpire decided whether to take the players off court.
Djokovic made a series of faces at the camera before inviting a ball boy to share his seat and a soft drink. They chatted under a large umbrella to the delight of the crowd.
When play resumed after five minutes, they shook hands politely before resuming their roles.
Czech fifth seed Petra Kvitova beat Karina Diyas of Kazakhstan 7-5, 6-2 and there were also wins for seeds Sabine Lisicki, Flavia Pennetta and Dominika Cibulkova.
Australia’s Sam Stosur thrashed Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 6-1, 6-1, despite playing with five stitches in her leg following an accident in the gym last week.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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