Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Update From the French Open/ Roland Garros For September 29, 2020

Roland Garros/French Open

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It's time for an update on the French Open now. It is strange to follow and update news of the French Open/ Roland Garros late in September, soon to be October outright. Strange also to see some of the tennis players, men and women alike, seemingly bundled up for a tennis match, at least by normal standards. Many of them have been wearing long leggings, and some have been wearing long sleeves. This is almost never the case during other Grand Slam tournaments, including the French Open, when it is being held during more normal, warmer times of the year. But this has obviously been a strange year.

Anyway, here is the latest tennis news from Paris. World number one on the men's side Novak Djokovic easily dispatched Mikael Ymer from Sweden, 6-0, 6-2, 6-3. The world number two, Rafael Nadal, also won easily against Egor Gerasimov of Belarus, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. No surprises there.

There were two seemingly feature matches that seemed a little unusual for happening so early in a Grand Slam tournament, coming as they did in the first round. Two former US Open champions, Dominic Thiem (2020) and Marin Čilić (2014) faced off. Thiem, fresh off capturing the US Open title, and considered one of the big favorites here in Paris, and one of the few men who would figure to have a real chance against the King of Clay Nadal, managed to dispatch with Čilić in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

And in another intriguing match, former French Open champion Stan Wawrinka, who captured the French Open title here in 2015, knocked off Andy Murray, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2. Murray, a former number one ranked player with three career Grand Slam titles and two Olympic Gold medals to his credit, as well as having been the ITF World Champion in 2016 (winning the year end number one ranking), is trying to resume his playing career after being plagued by injuries. But facing Wawrinka is the first round is a brutal way to have to try and come back obviously.

No major upsets on the men's side or anything thus far. On the women's side, Serene Williams won her first match in the first round, as she pursues what would be a record-tying 24th career major title. The major news was Kristina Mladenovic, who was attempting to bounce back from a headline making exit from the US Open just weeks ago, due to her being quarantined. In the first round here at Roland Garros, she lost to Laura Siegemund of Germany 7-5, 6-3. But she had been up and serving for the first set at 5-1, when she totally lost her cool after chair umpire Eva Asderaki Siegmund a point after failing to see that the ball had bounced twice. A replay showed that it had indeed bounced twice. Still, Mladenovic's total collapse and early exit after that did not fail to raise some eyebrows. 

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