2017 French Open Day 1

Petra Kvitova beats Julia Boserup 6-3, 6-2 on return after knife attack 
Ekaterina Makarova of Russia beats No1 seed Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-2

There was a ripple of heartfelt applause for Petra Kvitova on her victorious comeback and, shortly afterwards, the now worryingly familiar pain of early defeat for the world No1, Angelique Kerber, as the French Open began in sunshine, showers and mixed emotions.

Court Philippe Chatrier – poorly patronised, as ever, while the lunchtime champagne glasses tinkled nearby – rose in a minor key to acclaim Kvitova when the popular Czech posted an impressive 6-3, 6-2 win over the outclassed Californian, Julia Boserup. After what she has been through, even the many empty seats did not concern the happy Czech.

Returning from the horrors of a knife attack in her apartment last December, she kept her emotions in check when she stepped on to the tournament’s showpiece court but let the tears flow in victory as freely as the left-handed forehand that blew the world No86 hard-courter off the clay in less than an hour and a quarter.

Her team have “courage, belief, pride” printed on their T-shirts, and Kvitova explained courtside: “I needed that to come back here and play this tournament.”

Marion Bartoli, the 2013 Wimbledon champion whose own long struggle with injury forced her retirement, told her: “It was like just yesterday, blasting winners all over the place.”

Kvitova did not hold back on power on either wing, and moved with assurance on a surface that has not always been kind to her. She reached the semi-finals here in 2012 but is better suited to the grass of Wimbledon, where she has won twice. Nine aces flew from Kvitova’s rehabbed left arm and wrist past the dazzled American, although five double faults and 20 unforced errors in a short match prevented an even quicker conclusion.

Later, Kvitova spoke of her relief and satisfaction. “It was a nice and really heartwarming welcome,” she said. “My team was there. My family was there. Everyone who helped me through the difficult time. I’m happy with the game, of course, but it wasn’t really about the game today. I already won. This match is special to me. I won for the second time.”

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She added: “After we had a little break when the rain came, I ‘caught’ the racquet [on a shot] and it was a bit weird but, after one point, everything was OK. I was happy that I didn’t have any pain. I promised my doctor, who gave me the green light, that, if I feel pain in my hand during the match or in the practice, I’m stopping immediately. So I’m glad that I didn’t [have to].”

If handling the substantial trauma of a night-time assault in her own home was Kvitova’s greatest victory, Kerber has the comparatively mundane but nevertheless draining challenge of rediscovering the tennis and the self‑belief that elevated her to the top of her game over the past 18 months. It does not seem to be forthcoming.

Kerber is in more trouble than Michael Fallon, unable to correct a ship that has been listing alarmingly of late, and the normally resilient German could not avoid becoming the first world No1 to lose here in the first round in the Open era, when the unseeded, nothing-to-lose Russian Ekaterina Makarova beat her 6-2, 6-2.

Serena Williams lost in the first round to the then world No111 Virginie Razzano in 2012, when she was ranked fifth, and, in the American’s absence this summer from the tour and the top of the rankings while awaiting the arrival of her first child, Kerber had a chance to build on the late-arriving success of her breakthrough year in 2016, but appears to be blowing one opportunity after another.

She tried down to the wire in the hour and 22 minutes it lasted, but never really looked in the fight. Kerber lost more than half of her first serves, double-faulting four times, and Makarova worked her over on second serve as well. As desperation set in, Kerber went for the lines and paid the price with 25 unforced errors. There is little calm in her game and it might take a while to get it back.

As open as the women’s game has become, it is odd to see a fine player who won two slams and reached the final of another in the space of nine months lose to an opponent 40 places below her in the rankings.

Kerber also lost in the first round here last year, to 58th ranked Kiki Bertens, one of her 13 first-round exits in majors. Her clay season has been fairly miserable, as she lost first up in Stuttgart to France’s Kristina Mladenovic, retired in the third round against Eugenie Bouchard in Madrid and was helpless to stop the world No68 Anett Kontaveit in her first match in Rome. While that was her heaviest defeat by ranking in 18 months, Sunday’s loss was probably harder to take.

Kerber was near to inconsolable afterwards. “Maybe it’s good that it’s over for me,” she said. “I think I will go back home. I will do maybe a few days’ rest – or a few more days [practice]. I really don’t know what I will do now. But for sure I will think about what is the best preparation for grass.”

Kvitova and Makarova, meanwhile, could meet in the fourth round. However, in the febrile atmosphere of change that is sweeping through Roland Garros, that is far from a certainty for either player.


Robredo wins 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 in draining heat 
Evans hampered by stomach cramps after fine start

Dan Evans remains convinced he will never fall in love with clay but, for the first half of his losing match against Tommy Robredo in draining heat over four sets on the first day of the 2017 French Open, his aversion to the dirt looked to be a grand bluff.

The elegant Birmingham strokemaker might never master the surface that so bothers those brought up on grass or hard courts yet, before his stamina leaked and stomach cramps kicked in, he mixed selective power and teasing touches of the highest class to raise hopes of what he, at least, would have regarded as an upset.

He later put his early burst down to a dip in his opponent’s level. “I think he just didn’t find his feet at the start, and then it was clear he was way better than me on that surface and looked physically better as well, which was a bit worrying.”

That seemed a harsh self-judgment. Mats Wilander, who won three of his seven slams here, certainly thinks so. “It’s not that he cannot play on clay, but can he win on it?” the former world No1 said. “He has the game. He was great for an hour and a half.”

Nevertheless, it was evident Evans was fighting his own game as much as Robredo’s and had nothing left when his 10th double fault handed the Spanish veteran the match after two hours and 27 minutes. Robredo won 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 and next plays the No11 seed, Grigor Dimitrov, who saw off Stéphane Robert in three sets.

It is 11 years since Robredo was No6 in the world and, at 35, he languishes at 271 halfway through a poor season, but he had won 36 of 49 matches here over 16 years and has been a quarter-finalist five times, most recently in 2013.

It has taken some of the game’s best players to stop him: Roger Federer, Albert Costa, Nikolay Davydenko, Juan Martín del Potro and David Ferrer. Evans should not be so hard on himself.

The conditions on Sunday were tough enough to force the Russian Daniil Medvedev to quit with cramp on the same court earlier, with the French wildcard Benjamin Bonzi up 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, 3-1.

Yet Evans – who admitted later he had eaten too close to the start of the match because he did not imagine Medvedev-Bonzi would finish so quickly – brought encouraging clay form to Paris, having won a couple of matches in Barcelona, as well as taking the world No9, Dominic Thiem, to a tie-break there. On Court 2 here, he lost just one first serve to take the first set.

His trainer, Mark Hilton, looked concerned when Evans left the court with stomach pains that forced him to be sick during the break. He returned to break Robredo at the start of the second set with an unreachable backhand into the deuce corner, but tiredness steadily crowded out his focus, if not his resolve. He double-faulted, then surrendered the second set when he stabbed a final volley long. A time violation did nothing for his mood.

He went 0-3 down in the third and dropped his hands on his knees when Robredo stuck a dazzling single-handed backhand past him, the last of 13 shots in the longest rally of the match. Evans held. Just. Pain racked his face but he fought to deuce, got break point and was palpably relieved when Robredo hit wide. They exchanged breaks as Evans looked to be getting a second wind, but the Spaniard toughed it out to go a set up and finished the job as a matador would with a wounded bull.


Andy Murray has not looked much like the world No1 in practice but got into a more encouraging rhythm at the nearby Jean-Bouin Stadium on Sunday, before his first-round match against the world No85 Alexander Kuznetsov on Tuesday. Murray will not know until he is in the tougher exchanges whether the cold he picked up a week ago has left his system entirely.