Second-seeded Daniil Medvedev defeated Argentine Facundo Bagnis in straight sets Tuesday to easily advance to the second round of the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris.
Medvedev blasted 12 aces in winning 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in an efficient one hour, 38 minutes. Medvedev showed no signs of rust after missing most of the European events to recover from hernia surgery. He broke Magnis’ serve eight times.
“When I did the surgery, I thought I would not play on clay,” Medvedev said after the match. “But with my physio and doctor, we managed to put me back on track quickly and in the end, I was even able to play last week, a difficult match, but I’m happy to have played at least one match on clay to get ready for Roland-Garros and to arrive here in a good shape.”
Medvedev will face Serbia’s Laslo Djere in the second round. Djere defeated Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours, three minutes.
No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece went the distance with Italian Lorenzo Musetti. After falling behind two sets to none, he rallied for a 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory. Tsitsipas hit 10 aces and won 73.8 percent of his first-service points (76 of 103).
Seventh-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia rallied from a set down to defeat South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in two hours, 56 minutes to advance. Rublev hit 15 aces and won 78 percent of his points on first serve.
Jannik Sinner and Hubert Hurkacz had easier times with their first-round matches. Sinner, the 11th seed from Italy, beat American qualifier Bjorn Fratangelo 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. Hurkacz, the 12th seed from Poland, swept past Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri 7-5, 6-2, 7-5.
No. 14 seed Denis Shapovalov of Canada fell to Holger Rune of Denmark in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (4).
“It was difficult. For sure I wasn’t able to bring out my best performance. It’s definitely frustrating,” Shapovalov said. “It just shows I have a lot to work on. And just excited to get back to work. Never think I’m done learning and improving.”
French qualifier Gilles Simon won nine of 13 break points and downed Spanish 16th seed Pablo Carreno Busta 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 1-6, 6-4. France’s Hugo Gaston also took Australian 19th seed Alex de Minaur to five sets and pulled off the upset, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 0-6, 7-6 (4), in a hair under four hours.
In other matches, Richard Gasquet of France advanced but his countrymen Ugo Humbert, Benoit Paire and Arthur Rinderknech all fell.
So did France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who ended his career with a four-set loss to eighth-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway. Tsonga, who once reached No. 5 in the rankings during his 18-year career, said earlier the French Open would be his last tournament before retiring.
“The crowd was amazing today, supporting me and giving me the power to fight,” Tsonga said, per ESPN. “I finished on the court playing like I did throughout my career. It’ll always be a good memory. In a way, I finished like I wanted to finish.”
Two seeded Americans won their opening matches. No. 24 Frances Tiafoe beat France’s Benjamin Bonzi in a close one, 7-5, 7-5, 7-6 (5) and No. 27 Sebastian Korda defeated Australian John Millman 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (6). But fellow American and No. 30 Tommy Paul lost to Chile’s Cristian Garin in four sets.
No. 32 Lorenzo Sonego of Italy also advanced.
–Field Level Media
