Canadian Denis Shapovalov fell short of Belarusian Ilya Ivashka in his opener at the Geneva tennis tournament on Wednesday in Switzerland.
• Read also: A first step taken for Rebecca Marino
The Ontarian, who benefited from a bye for the first round of this competition, lost the flag in three sets of 6-4, 6-7 (2) and 6-3.
The 15th player on the world chessboard would probably have liked to have had more success before playing the second Grand Slam tournament, that is to say the International tennis tournament in France, next week.
Facing Ivashka, “Shapo” was broken twice and was unable to take advantage of the only break point he had given himself. The 21-year-old was good with the balls in hand despite the loss. He indeed managed nine aces and won 70% of the exchanges disputed when he succeeded on his first attempts.
Rebecca Marino on the threshold of the Porte d’Auteuil
Canada’s Rebecca Marino is just one win away from making the French Open tennis main draw, having easily defeated Ukraine’s Katarina Zavatska 6-1, 6-2 in her second qualifying match in Paris.
The winner needed 63 minutes to have the 210th racket in the world. Ninth seed of the pre-tournament stage and 116th player on the WTA circuit, the British Columbian slammed the seven aces of the clash and had six breaks in nine occasions.
She took advantage of her rival’s troubles on serve, Zavatska pocketing 39% of the points contested when she had the first balls in hand. In game winners, Marino had the upper hand 25-2.
If she wishes to qualify, the athlete of the maple leaf will have to get rid of the Australian Seone Mendez (223rd). The latter beat the American Caroline Dolehide (173rd) in two sets of 7-6 (7) and 7-5.
