 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Images from all the action from Day 1 of the French Open played at Roland Garros in Paris on Sunday
World number one Angelique Kerber was dumped out of the French Open on Sunday, going down 6-2, 6-2 in a first-round defeat to Russia's Ekaterina Makarova.
The German became the first top-seeded woman to lose in the opening round of the French Open since the sport went professional in 1968.
After briefly threatening a recovery in the eighth game, in which she held two break points, Kerber meekly surrendered the first set with a forehand that never looked like clearing the net.
The German dropped serve in the next game, with Makarova hitting four clean forehand winners to take a hold on the match that she rarely looked like relinquishing.
Roland Garros opened its gates for the main tournament of the French Open amid tight security on a searing hot Sunday.
In the opening match of the tournament, 15th-seed Petra Kvitova defeated American Julia Boserup 6-3, 6-2 on her much-awaited return to competition five months after being stabbed during a burglary.
The 27-year-old Czech dominated the match from the opening exchanges, breaking Boserup's serve twice to claim the opening set.
Boserup, who was making her third grand slam appearance, failed to match Kvitova's powerful groundstrokes and conceded the match that lasted an hour and 14 minutes.
Austrian sixth seed Dominic Thiem got his French Open campaign off to a quickfire start on Sunday, beating an out-of-sorts Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 as he embarked on a bid to go one round better than he did last year.
After a tight first set, the 39th-ranked Australian won just two more games as, looking to keep the points short on a hot and fast Court Suzanne Lenglen, he sprayed the ball long and wide in his quest for winners.
In all he made 33 unforced errors to Thiem's 10, while the ace count was 11 to three in the Austrian's favour.
"I am happy I had a good start," Thiem said courtside after the match, though in truth he might have preferred a tougher workout in keeping with his ambitions for the tournament.
Among other seeds, 11th seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria eased past Frenchman Stephane Robert 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 to move into the 2nd round.
Spaniard Pablo Carreno saw off German Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 to advance and
23-seeded Ivo Karlovic had to dig deep before defeating Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(5), 7-5, 6-4.
