It’s now Day 3 of the French Open and a number of the biggest players have faltered, not looking as confident or powerful as they should. Third seed and reigning Roland-Garros champion Stan Wawrinka was believed to have the easiest quarter of the top 4 seeds, but struggled against his Czech rival Lukas Rosol.
The 59th- ranked Czech took his Swiss rival to five sets as a frustrated Wawrinka celebrated every point; he would eventually progress, but it was definitely not the certain affair it was touted to be.
Wawrinka defeated Rosol 4-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to take a tenuous victory and progress to the second round of the Grand Slam.
Elsewhere, Kei Nishikori, fresh off a very strong semi-finals finish at the Italian Open – one that saw him within a single tiebreak point of toppling Novak Djokovic, was one of the only top seeds on Day 2 who did not struggle. The Japanese ace beat Italy’s Simone Bolleli in straight sets – 6-1, 7-5, 6-3 after waiting for a large chunk of the afternoon following inclement weather.
The biggest surprise of the evening was Andy Murray’s struggle against Czech doubles specialist Radek Stepanek. The Scot, who has enjoyed good claycourt form of late, had lost the first two sets and won a third. He was leading 4-2 in the fourth set when bad lighting interrupted play – the two will play today.
Live updates:
Novak Djokovic [1] beats Lu Hsen-Yu 6-4, 6-1, 6-1
Lu started off okay and completely lost his composure today! The 30-year-old could simply not match up to Djokovic’s game – few can – and with the Serb’s 35 winners, he was a shoo-in for the victory today.
Second set not going so well for Lu...and it’s all falling apart! The Chinese Taipei player hasn’t played a particularly erroneous game today – he’s neck and neck with Djokovic with the two at 22 and 23 unforced errors apiece; the Serb has simply been completely outplaying him, as expected. That means the 95th-ranked player is unable to hold his own.
Djokovic has taken him to break point 12 times – winning six, with Lu breaking his serve only once in response.
The final set is going particularly badly for Lu; Djokovic is now up two breaks of serve and three game wins away from a simple straight sets victory here.
Djokovic wins the first set 6-4!
But it's not a bad performance from Lu at all. He’s more than held his own so far and there’s virtually nothing separating the two statistically.
Widely expected to go Djokovic’s way quite quickly and the Serb has opened proceedings quite quickly. Each player has held serve and Djokovic almost has the Chinese Taipei player at break point – and concedes!
Lu isn’t being routed as expected, but holding his own. Djokovic is up a break of serve at 4-3, and serving for this game.
Lu holds for 2-1.
Rafael Nadal beats Sam Groth 6-1, 6-1, 6-1
An absolutely clinical performance from the Spaniard, and one entirely expected. He systematically took apart Groth’s serve, playing this clay court opener with consummate ease.
He’s taken his quickest ever French Open win today – finishing off the match in 1 hour 22 minutes. His previous record was against Dusan Lajovic of Serbia in 2014; that match was over in an hour and 33 minutes.
Nadal hit 25 winners as his Australian rival faltered with a whopping 25 unforced errors, more than eight times as many as Nadal; the 100th- ranked player does not have a great claycourt record, and few players would fancy their chances against the clay GOAT.
In the end, an easy one for Nadal, whose backhand was on fine display today.
Andy Murray beats Radek Stepanek 3-6, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5
That was a match and a half! It lasted two days (thanks to bad light) and the World No. 2 struggled significantly when he should not have, or would not have been expected to.
The Czech put up a solid fight but it’s his 73 unforced errors that will come back to haunt him; save for those, he could have pulled off a massive first round upset a la Fernando Verdasco at the Australian Open this year. That didn’t happen.
Exciting tennis, though, and when we say it went down to the wire, it really went down to the wire. The pair battled until the final set, with Murray looking to break Stepanek to stay in the match. He broke, with the final game going to deuce as the Czech refused to back down. A backhand forced error eventually loses him the match but he’s definitely earned some fans at Roland Garros!
Matches to look out for today:
Andy Murray [2] vs Radek Stepanek
A continuation of the Day 2 match interrupted by bad lighting at Roland-Garros saw Murray struggling. The second seed was largely expected to breeze through this match, but has been digging deep to avoid a first-round ouster against the Czech.
The pair are now level at two sets apiece 6-3 6-3 0-6 2-4 to Stepanek.
Novak Djokovic [1] vs Yu-Hsen Lu
The top seed is expected to take this one in straight games. Despite having only won one clay court tournament this year, Djokovic has been in otherwise fine form, reaching the finals of nearly every tournament he has played bar a shock loss to Jiri Vesely in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters.
Rafael Nadal [4] vs Sam Groth
9-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal is a mountain GOAT on clay; the Spaniard is the most successful player of all time on the surface, and up against the lower-ranked Sam Groth will not be particularly worried; Groth does not have much to combat Nadal barring a big serve.
What is the foot injury that has troubled Rafael Nadal over the years? Check here
