Fifth seed Milos Raonic struck 44 winners, including 15 aces, past Belgian Steve Darcis in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over one hour and 31 minutes on Monday at Roland Garros. Raonic’s best performance at the clay-court Grand Slam championship was a run to the 2014 quarter-finals (l. to Djokovic). “It's always good to start and to be as efficient as possible,” said Raonic, who will next face Rogerio Dutra Silva or 2010 quarter-finalist Mikhail Youzhny. “I was able to break relatively early in all three sets and just sort of go about my business throughout the whole match. So I'm happy with that, and it gives me a little more freedom to spend more time working on my game...
In a battle of Frenchmen, Lucas Pouille again got the better of Julien Benneteau, coming back from two-sets-to-one down to win 7-6(6), 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in three hours and 21 minutes on Sunday at Roland Garros. “I knew he was going to put a lot of pressure on me. I knew he was going to try and play short balls because he didn't want to play a long match of long balls, because physically he was not ready for that. I knew it was going to be a tough match,” Pouille said. The 23-year-old Pouille had also beaten his compatriot last year to start their home Grand Slam tournament, but, during their match on Sunday, the 35-year-old Benneteau converted...
Grigor Dimitrov turned in a sublime start to his Roland Garros campaign on Sunday, streaking past Frenchman Stephane Robert 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in just one hour and 49 minutes. The 11th seed fired 35 winners, including eight aces, to dispatch Robert. He was a perfect six-for-six converting break points and turned aside eight of 10 faced. A two-time winner on the ATP World Tour this year, in Brisbane and Sofia, Dimitrov is looking to return to top form in the French capital after suffering early clay-court exits at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in Monte-Carlo and Rome. "I'm so happy," Dimitrov said. "It's good. It's always good to win that first match, especially at any Slam, but here...
Sixth seed Dominic Thiem wasted little time moving into the second round of Roland Garros on Sunday, requiring just 80 minutes to move past Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-0, 6-2. “I'm happy that I won in three sets. It was a tough opponent and a close first set,” said Thiem. “I was also a little bit nervous before the match, so because of these circumstances, I'm happy with my performance.” Tout le talent de @ThiemDomi condensé dans ce point ! All of Thiem's talent in one point! #RG17 pic.twitter.com/WMYy0Sxoe3 — Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 28, 2017 From 5-4 in the first set, Thiem stormed through 12 of the next 13 games. The 23-year-old Austrian was on song from the baseline and finished...
Argentine Andres Molteni and Canadian Adil Shamasdin might have to give this another try. Playing together for the first time this week, the unseeded pairing captured the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon doubles title, prevailing against New Zealand's Marcus Daniell and Brazilian Marcelo Demoliner 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 on Saturday. Molteni/Shamasdin won 82 per cent of their first-serve points and jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the Match Tie-break before clinching the title after 82 minutes. "I think we have good energy together. We're playing good, we're playing aggressive. We are really happy today to win our first title," Molteni said. [ALSO LIKE] The championship team dropped only two sets all week. The title is Molteni's second ATP World Tour doubles...
