For a half hour on Tuesday at Roland Garros, 36-year-old Nicolas Mahut turned back time. The French wild card was dominating fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro, drop shotting the 6'6” Argentine and serving and volleying as if he was on the The Queen's Club grass. Twenty-five minutes into their first-round match, Mahut led 6-1 and had the French crowd on Court Suzanne-Lenglen eager for more. But the party soon ended. Del Potro, perhaps nervous about testing his injured groin, eventually settled his game and started to solve Mahut's serve-and-volley style. The Argentine sprinted through the second set in 31 minutes, and repeated the act two more times to advance 1-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. “I know he starts very slow,...
Three of the Top 4 Americans in the ATP Rankings experienced mixed fortunes on Tuesday at Roland Garros. John Isner and Steve Johnson reached the second round, but Jack Sock wasn’t as fortunate. Isner was made to work hard in beating fellow American Noah Rubin in straight sets in a two-day encounter. Ninth seed Isner led 6-3, 7-6(7), having saved two set points at 5/6 and 6/7 in the second set tie-break, when rained suspended play on Monday night. But upon the resumption of play on Tuesday, World No. 173 Rubin fought just as hard. Rubin saved a total of four match points at 4-5 (three) and 5-6 (one) in the third set, before missing out on a set point...
Rafael Nadal was tested more than he would have preferred, but the Spaniard returned to Court Philippe-Chatrier victorious on Tuesday at Roland Garros. The 10-time champion's first-round match against Simone Bolelli of Italy was suspended by rain at 6-4, 6-3, 0-3 late Monday evening. But Nadal, a champion in 2005-08, 2010-14 and '17, seized momentum from the start and saved four set points in the third-set tie-break to advance to the second round 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(9). “He was a very aggressive player, and he was playing very strong. I didn't know that he was going to play so aggressively. I understood that I really had to attack, and I had to have the proper mindset, be positive, and accept how...
Kevin Anderson began his ninth Roland Garros campaign with a comfortable win, defeating Paolo Lorenzi 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 in a rain-interrupted first-round clash on Tuesday. The New York Open champion notched his fifth win in as many FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against the Italian, dropping five first-serve points (39/44) and firing 18 aces to progress after one hour and 42 minutes. Anderson, who reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final at the Mutua Madrid Open this month, is bidding to reach his maiden quarter-final in Paris this year. The World No. 7 has reached the Round of 16 on three occasions (2013-14, 2017). The 2017 US Open runner-up will face Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas for a spot in the...
Marin Cilic began his 12th tilt at the Roland Garros title by striking 47 winners, including 13 aces, on Tuesday. The third-seeded Croatian, improved to 19-8 on the season, by beating James Duckworth of Australia 6-3, 7-5, 7-6(4) in a rain-interrupted two hours and 14 minutes. “I was serving really good today,” said Cilic. “I believe I had quite a high percentage of first serve and was also winning points after my serve. [I experienced a] little bit of a loss of concentration at 5-4, when I was serving for the second set, and he came back. It was just a little bit difficult to get back straight at it. We didn't know when we were going back. We could...
