Teen sensations Mirra Andreeva and Joao Fonseca bustled and battered their way into the second round as a defeated Ons Jabeur hit out the scheduling.
Night slots
A few years back, the French Tennis Federation cut a deal with Amazon Prime to broadcast a 9pm night match from the French Open. That fans could not get home following matches finishing after the metros had closed led to a few tweaks – it starts at 8pm now.
There were raised eyebrows too from the outset about the paucity of women's matches in the slot. Federation chiefs have maintained throughout that they place the "clash of the day" in the night time berth. Ons Jabeur, a two-time quarter-finalist, has consistently criticised the stance.
The 30-year-old Tunisian won't be involved in the night slot this year after losing her first round match to the 25th seed Magdalena Frech. "It's a bit ironic," Jabeur lamented. "They don't show women's sport, they don't show women's tennis, and then they say: 'Yeah, but mostly they watch men.' Of course they watch men more because you show men more. Everything goes together. It's a shame from the federation, a shame from Prime. A lot of great players, they deserve to be there." So far, all three night matches have involved men, two of them French.
Teen titans
Big things are expected of the Russian 18-year-old Mirra Andreeva who reached the semis last year and Joao Fonseca. Andreeva overcame a tentative start to get past Cristina Bucsa from Spain. Fonseca faced the experienced Pole Hubert Hurkacz for his first ever match at the French Open and essentially blitzed the 30th seed The 18-year-old won 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 to set up a second round meeting with Pierre-Hugues Herbert from France. Wonder where that will be scheduled.
Introspection for glory
Third seed Alexander Zverev was in contemplative mood just after a straight sets first round win over Learner Tien. Zverev lost last year's French Open final to Carlos Alcaraz a couple of weeks after winning the Italian Open.
"A year ago before Rome I didn't win anything. I have ups-and-downs. I'm not a Novak Djokovic. I'm not a Rafa Nadal who are going to win or make finals of every tournament. My highs are very high but my lows are lower than other players and other top guys. I have come to terms with that. That's just how my tennis is. You know, that's maybe who I am, in a way."
Zverev has won 24 titles including two ATP end-of-season championships as well and seven Masters 1000 tournaments which are considered just below the Grand Slam competitions in terms of prestige. "I'm just hoping that my highs will be higher than anyone else's over the next two weeks," he added hopefully.
Underdog day afternoon
Cameron Norrie had appalling statistics in his games against Daniil Medvedev. Played four. Lost four. No sets won with an average of three games a set. That all changed in their first round match when Medvedev lost eight consecutive games to offer Norrie the first set 7-5 and a 4-0 lead in the second.
Medvedev served for the match at 5-4 up n the fifth set but failed to hold his nerve and Norrie, who has plummeted down the ATP rankings to 81 from a high of eight, roared back to claim the decider 7-5.
"Obviously you fight to be in the top 10, try to stay there," said the 29-year-old Briton. "It was difficult for me to try to get a lot of momentum last year with some injuries. I was really pushing at the beginning of the year to play well but it was not coming. The moment you kind of accept where you are in terms of ranking and actual level it's fun again and nice to be the underdog."
Tools of the trade
Slight glitch in the Coco Gauff global supremacy machine before the match against Olivia Gadecki from New Zealand. The second seed forgot to bring her equipment onto centre court. A ball boy was dispatched to retrieve the goods. "Yeah, well, the most important thing is to play with a racquet so I was getting through the first step," said the 21-year-old American of her blip.
"After that, maybe it probably relaxed me going into the match, because it was just such a funny thing." Gauff required 71 minutes to overcome her 23-year-old opponent 6-2, 6-2. "Yeah, so I'm just happy to get through and I will remember my racquets for next time."
