Two of the contenders to reach the last rounds at Roland Garros, the Russian Daniil Medvedev (N.2) and the Spanish Paula Badosa (N.4) had convincing debuts in the Parisian tournament on Tuesday, while the Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga said goodbye… to professional tennis.
Very solid in his game despite the fact that clay is not his favorite surface, Medvedev hit 35 winners and broke Facundo Bagnis’ serve eight times (N.103) to defeat the Argentine by a triple 6-2 in 1h38 of play.
“I love Roland Garros, especially since last year,” when he reached the quarterfinals after losing in the first round in his first four appearances, the Russian tennis player said after the match.
“I hope to go further this year,” added Medvedev, who will face Serbian Laslo Djere (N.56) in the second round.
The Russian also seems recovered from the hernia operation he underwent almost two months ago and which deprived him of almost the entire clay court season: “Everything is going very well, because when I had the operation I didn’t think about being able to play in the gravel tour, but the doctor and the ‘physio’ did everything possible so that he could play again last week”, he explained.
“Physically I feel 100%, so I hope to play well,” assured a Medvedev who was also favored by the draw, since many of the contenders for the title (Djokovic, Nadal, Alcaraz and Zverev) go for the other part of the draw and would only face them in an eventual final.
– In search of trust –
In addition, for that part of the table, several top seeds were eliminated this Tuesday, such as the Canadian Denis Shapovalov, the Australian Alex de Miñaur and the American Tommy Paul, defeated by the Chilean Cristian Garín in four sets, 5-7, 6 -1, 6-2 and 6-3, who will meet Belarusian Ilya Ivashka (N.50) in the second round.
In the women’s category, Paula Badosa presented herself with doubts in Paris after not obtaining good results in recent weeks, but she barely needed 54 minutes to defeat the French Fiona Ferro (N.130) 6-2 and 6-0, at the who only allowed two points in the second set.
“It is very important for me to start like this, I was very nervous these days ago because I lacked confidence since Madrid, but every game and minute on the court is going to help me regain that confidence that I need,” the Spaniard explained at a press conference.
“Confidence costs a lot to build and very little to lose,” he added.
With four Top 10 already eliminated in the first round (Krejcikova, Konteveit, Jabeur and Muguruza), Badosa, who will play in the second round against the Slovenian Kaja Juvan (N.68) assured: “I see it as a warning that you can lose against anyone and that you have to give 100% in every game”.
However, it was not a day of surprises, since they did not lose any of the top seeds that took part this Tuesday at Roland Garros.
– A child’s dream fulfilled –
The emotional note was put by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the most important French tennis player of the last two decades, who is retiring from professional tennis after losing against the Norwegian Casper Ruud (N.8).
The Philippe Chatrier audience bid him farewell with a long standing ovation after losing 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/4), 6-2, 7-6 (7/0) in a match that ended with injury on a shoulder, crying with emotion and kissing the clay of Paris.
Despite never winning a Grand Slam, he was a finalist in Australia (2008) and a semifinalist in Melbourne (2010), Roland Garros (2013 and 2015) and Wimbledon (2011 and 2012), in addition to winning the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000 ( 2008) and Canada (2014), an Olympic silver in London-2012 and being the winner with France of the Davis Cup (2017).
Tsonga is also one of only three tennis players in history to have defeated Djokovic, Nadal and Federer when they were number 1 in the world and one of the three to beat the ‘Big 3’ and Andy Murray in a Grand Slam.
“Thank you to everyone who allowed me to fulfill my childhood dream,” Tsonga said as he received a tribute attended by all his coaches, the leading French players of his generation and his family.
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