Rain Shortens Play on Monday at Roland Garros, Djokovic, Wozniacki, Kvitova advance, Wawrinka, Azarenka Lose
(May 28, 2018) Rain halted play on Monday evening with ten-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal up 6-4, 6-3, 0-3 on lucky loser Simone Bolelli on Court Phillippe-Chatrier. Their match will resume on Tuesday after the first.
Former champion Novak Djokovic advanced to the second round, while 2015 winner Stan Wawrinka bowed out in the first round.
No. 20 seed Djokovic advanced over Brazilian qualifier Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
The Serbian, who had elbow surgery is still making his way back to the form that gave him 12 major titles.
“But it has been difficult to face injury, the major injury, most, say, challenging injury that I have ever had,” Djokovic said to media. “It’s been a long 12 months behind me, but I’m starting to play better, I feel like, in the past couple of weeks, not thinking about the elbow, playing pain free, which is the most important thing at the moment.”
Still on the comeback trail from knee surgery last year, Wawrinka lost in a five-set struggle against Guillermo Garcia Lopez 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
“As I say, my knee is good,” Wawrinka said. “I’m happy with that. That’s really positive to
see, but it’s been now a few weeks that I’m feeling great with that sort of injury I did. So that’s good.
“I’m in the right way, and I need to keep pushing.”
“I think I’m on the right way. I’m playing well. The knee is keeping up and physically I start to be stronger every day. So I need to keep pushing myself to get where I want to be.”
In ladies action, No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki defeated American Danielle Collins 7-6 (2), 6-1. Colins was making her French Open debut.
For the Dane, who won her first major at the Australian Open, it’s a new experience coming into the French Open as a major champion. “It feels great,” she said. “A little bit less pressure. I kind of feel like I have one Grand Slam now, so no matter what happens, no one can take that away from me. I’m just out here trying to enjoy every match and every moment of it.”
No. 8 seed Petra Kvitova needed to rally to beat Veronica Cepede Royg 3-6, 6-1, 7-5.
“She really hit almost everything,” the Czech said of Royg. “I’m not surprised she reached the fourth round last year here. She really likes the conditions here and played very well. She didn’t really miss much, as well. So it was pretty tough. Yeah, and the end was pretty physically tough, as well. The last, I don’t know, four games were really like trying, and she did, as well. But I was just happy — I tried a little bit go more to the court, be more a little bit aggressive than before. Otherwise we are still playing probably.
“I just tried going for the net a little bit, which helped me in the last game, I think.”
Former No. 1 player Victoria Azarenka is out in the first round of Paris. The two-time major winner is on the road back up the rankings after having a baby in late 2016, dealing with legal custody battles with her former partner.
The Belarusian ranked No. 84 lost to Katerina Siniakova 7-5, 7-5. With all of the talk about the seeding of women returning to the tour from having a baby, the two-time major winner has mixed emotions about it.
“I’m going back and forth. I’m going back and forth still. There are different ways to look at it. There is really different — it’s not easy if you want to look objective. If you want to look personal and be personal, it’s very easy. But if you want to be objective towards everybody, it’s not easy.”
“It’s very easy to say, ‘Oh, you know, they are not seeded, it’s terrible, bad rules.’ But there are a lot of things that are going into this rule and into the thought process.”
A pair of seeds lost on Monday – No. 29 Kiki Mladenovic of France lost to former Top 10 player Andrea Petkovic 7-6 (10), 6-2 and 20th seed Anastasija Sevastova from Latvia fell to Mariana Duque-Mariño 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.
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