Daniil Medvedev and Andrei Rublev successfully overcame the first barrier at French Open, but the main focus in Paris in the early days of Roland Garros is on Rafael Nadal, who may not return to this tournament. Sports correspondent — about the main events of the start of the second stage of the Grand Slam.
Even before the start of Roland Garros, Medvedev said that the main thing for him was to get through the first round. And his words are confirmed by disappointing statistics. Of the seven French Open championships, five ended for the Russian after the first match. Including last year — when Daniil lost to the Brazilian Thiago Wilde from 172nd place in the world ranking.
Medvedev started this tournament with a match against German Dominik Koepfer. Earlier, at the pre-start press conference, the Russian thanked fate that he did not get Rafael Nadal — but this opponent also managed to cause trouble at some point. After two lost sets, the German, ranked 65th in the world classification, suddenly became more aggressive, and the Russian, on the contrary, began to make mistakes a little more often than he should have. As a result, Daniil still completed the match in his favor, but only at half past one in the morning. Thanks to the recently installed artificial lighting system — just a few years ago Medvedev and Köpfer would have had to finish the game the next day.
“If I finish a match before midnight at a Grand Slam tournament, it means something is wrong,” Medvedev joked after. “But everything is fine. I don’t know why, but he decided to play (in the third set) at his best level, I started hitting the lines, running after every ball, fighting. If he had done that from the first play, it would have been harder for me. In the fourth set, I told myself: “If he wants to win this match, he won’t be able to walk tomorrow.”
As for his level, Daniil admitted that he is still far from the level with which he can become the winner of the French Open. But, according to him, this does not make his ambition to win any less. “My goal is always to win, and Roland Garros is no exception, so I will try to do this,” the Russian emphasized.
The statistics here, however, are also not in Medvedev’s favor. In those two cases when a Russian tennis player managed to win the first match in Paris, he reached the quarterfinals (in 2021) and the fourth round (in 2022). Will Daniil be able to improve on his best result at Roland Garros this season? In principle, there are no opponents that Medvedev could not cope with in the future on the grid. There are some unpleasant ones: Argentines, Spaniards, old friend Alexander Bublik. But in general, everything depends on Daniel himself — his mood and well-being. So far everything seems to be in order.
Two more Russians also advanced to the second round of Roland Garros, who have the potential to make it far in the tournament bracket — Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov. Both did not have to make titanic efforts for this, but for now it is difficult to draw conclusions about their readiness for big victories — they need rivals of a more serious level. But Pavel Kotov spent five sets to beat Briton Cameron Norrie. The 56th racket of the world has an additional incentive at this tournament: in the event of a colossal breakthrough, there is an opportunity to get ahead of Roman Safiullin, who is 42nd in the ranking and lost his first match at Roland Garros, and qualify for the Olympic Games.
In women's singles there is still relative confusion in this regard. It is already clear that Tokyo Olympics participant Veronika Kudermetova remains without the Games in Paris — she lost at Roland Garros in the first round and will no longer make it into the top four Russian girls. Lyudmila Samsonova, Anna Kalinskaya and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, having won their first matches at the French Open, improved their chances for Olympic selection. In general, what about the claims to show a good result at Roland Garros, to return to Paris at the end of July — everything is written with a pitchfork in the water of the rain that periodically bothers the players in the French capital this week.
And on Monday Many in Paris had tears in their eyes — the legend of the Roland Garros courts, Rafael Nadal, still lost to the German Alexander Zverev in what was perhaps his last match at this tournament. The 14-time champion did not rule out a new French Open for himself, although he admitted that his body is now a jungle.
“You wake up one morning — a snake bites, another morning — a tiger,” Nadal admitted at a press conference. “You don’t know what to expect. It was a battle with circumstances, and these two years I fought with injuries for the sake of a dream — to return to Roland Garros.» My draw in the first round was not ideal. If I had played with someone else, I would have had chances. But against such a player as Sasha, they were not enough.»
«It is difficult for me to say whether I will have “I have another opportunity to stand in front of you like this,” the Spaniard, for whom the Parisian courts have become home, addressed the audience. “It’s difficult to describe the feelings I feel in words. For me, it’s something special — to be in the place that I love most. everything. And if this was the last time, then I enjoyed it.» With these words, Nadal left. He did not promise to return — but one hundred percent that they will be waiting for him in Paris. At least at the Olympics, where he can be given a wild card under the “heritage” quota of the International Federation, which is issued to champions of the Games and Grand Slam tournaments.