Night fever
The second night match at Roland Garros - the first involved Serena Williams on Day 2 - provided a mixed bag of emotions. World number one Novak Djokovic played Tennys Sandgren - talk about nominative determinism. It wasn’t tense. Djokovic was always in control during the 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 win. It was all wrapped up within two hours. But the players did have a few words wth the umpire who failed to stop the noise of voices and glasses clinking from belching out of one of the TV platforms dotted around the stadium. They were laughing and joking up there and obviously not watching the Tennys. “You’ve been asking them to be quiet for 30 minutes, fumed Djokovic. “Can you get someone to go there and tell them to be quiet?” It didn’t really matter. It was all over fairly soon after the Serb's outburst. What the review liked was Sandgren changing his shirt when trailing 4-1 in the third. Message of intent? Maybe. Djokovic clearly didn't hear it. Deaf to some things that lad.
Osaka shocker
Second seed Naomi Osaka walked away from the French Open to deal with her mental health issues after the four Grand Slam tournament bosses threatened to ban her from their tournaments if she didn’t attend press conferences - the things that make her anxious and affect her mental health. What a state of affairs. The heads of the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open issued a statement on Day 3 saying they would do everything to support Osaka during her recovery. A statement from the gang of four a few days earlier threatening retribution was, they say, to show that there was a level playing field for all players on the tour. Quite.
Sister doin’ it for herself.
That sounds like a song. Of course everybody’s talking about Naomi Osaka. And during her post-match press conference following her defeat to 32nd seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, Venus Williams, Serena's older sibling, was asked how she had dealt with questions and things from the journalists during her storied couple of decades on the circuit. The 40-year-old replied: “I know every single person asking me a question can't play as well as I can and never will, so no matter what you say or what you write, you'll never light a candle to me. So that's how I deal with it.” Tell it like it is big sister.
Love is a many splendoured thing.
Now that is a song. Never let it be said that Elina Svitolina doesn’t do her bit for her man. Soon after beating Océane Babel on centre court, Svitolina did her post-match press duties and raced over to Court Suzanne Lenglen to cheer for hubby Gael Monfils during his match against the Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. It didn’t start well for Monfils who looked out of sorts as Ramos-Vinolas won the opener 6-1. But the 14th seed pulled himself together and managed to edge the tiebreak. He won the third set 6-4 and the fourth set by the same score to make it a very happy day in the household.
High five
Big-serving Alexei Popyrin got a big thumbs-up from Mr Big after their first round match. Radal Nadal - winner of a record 20 Grand Slam tournament titles - waltzed through the first two sets 6-3, 6-2 but ran into a little more traffic in the third. Popyrin broke him and eventually served for the set at 5-3. Here the 21-year-old Australian had two set points. One was squandered with a double fault and the other - a dreadful overhead smash. Nadal eventually got back to parity and raced away with the tiebreak to record his second win over the tyro. “I repeat what I said before,” said Nadal after their two hour encounter. “With this serve, with his kind of shots from the baseline, you have everything to become a top player. Then you really need to want to do it … if he wants to do it, he has everything to become a fantastic player. Let's see what is going on in the next couple of months, years." Over to you Alexei.
