Rio Open presented by Claro champion Diego Schwartzman wasted little time securing his position in the second round at Roland Garros, defeating France's Calvin Hemery 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 on Monday. The Buenos Aires native won 71 per cent of second-serve return points to notch his fifth win at the event after 87 minutes. Schwartzman, the No. 11 seed, converted six of his 11 break-point opportunities and saved the only break point he faced against the 23-year-old. The 5'7" star, who fell in five sets to Novak Djokovic in the third round last year, will need to beat Czech Adam Pavlasek to return to the Round of 32. The World No. 185 came from a set down to stun Diema Xtra...
Dominic Thiem's bid to reach a third consecutive Roland Garros semi-final began with a routine 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 victory against 24-year-old Ilya Ivashka of Belarus. Thiem converted eight of his 14 break chances to remain perfect in Roland Garros first-rounders. [ALSO LIKE] The seventh-seeded Austrian is the only man to have beaten Rafael Nadal on clay in each of the past two years and comes into Roland Garros as one of only three men – Nadal and Alexander Zverev – who have celebrated multiple clay-court titles this season. Thiem won last week at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon and in February at the Argentina Open. He also reached the final of the Mutua Madrid Open earlier this month. “I'm feeling...
Novak Djokovic lost the first two games in both the first and second sets on Tuesday against Rogerio Dutra Silva, but experienced no further problems in victory at Roland Garros. On a sweltering day two in south-west Paris, 2016 champion Djokovic recorded his 60th match win at the Grand Slam championship (60-12) with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over the Brazilian qualifier in two hours and five minutes on Philippe-Chatrier Court. It was their first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting since the 2012 US Open. “I'm starting to play better,” said Djokovic. “I feel like, in the past couple of weeks, [I’ve] not been thinking about the elbow [and] playing pain-free, which is the most important thing at the moment… I...
In 2014, Stan Wawrinka entered Roland Garros with high expectations after winning his first Grand Slam at the Australian Open earlier in the year. But the Swiss star’s ambitions of a second consecutive major title were ended in the first round, losing to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in four sets. On Monday, four years on from their most recent meeting on clay, the pair met again in the opening round in Paris. But, once more, it was Garcia-Lopez who emerged victorious. The 34-year-old, competing in his 15th consecutive Roland Garros, came from two sets to one down to upset last year's finalist 6-2 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 . The Spaniard, who reached the Round of 16 in 2014, hit 44 winners and...
There will be no first-round exit for Alexander Zverev at Roland Garros this year. The 6'6” German dominated his opener on Sunday, cruising past Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 in only 69 minutes. The second seed hit 11 aces and dropped only four points on his first serve (27/31). Last year, Zverev, after winning his maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Rome, lost to Fernando Verdasco in the first round in Paris. Zverev is now a two-time clay-court Masters 1000 titlist after winning the Mutua Madrid Open earlier this month (d. Thiem), and he's looking to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final this fortnight. “On clay especially I have been playing well... I have won two tournaments...
