Quick Served: Roland Garros Day 2
Goodbyes and a Boycott Update
Context-free soundbite: “At the changeover, Torben Ulrich walked over to his opponent’s chair and gave him a backrub.”
JW calls in from blistering-hot Paris with the day’s results and an updated analysis on the prize-money issue that sparked Friday’s media boycott by top players. Andy will talk more about Gael Monfils tomorrow. The Frenchman and Stan Wawrinka both bowed out and said au revoir to Roland Garros for the final time.
Other than bittersweetness, the toughest opponent today was the heat. Casper Ruud said he “couldn’t see straight” at one point in his five-set win.
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Bracket Busters
Based on how many Chuckers said Gael Monfils would beat Hugo Gaston in our poll yesterday (90%), La Monf’s five-set loss counts as a major upset in the Bracket Challenge. Gaston, 14 years Monfils’s junior and ranked 100 spots higher, was fast, sharp and smart, exploiting the 39-year-old’s sluggish movement.
Similarly, many of you thought Stan Wawrinka caught a break when his first-round opponent, Arthur Fils, pulled out of the tournament and was replaced by lucky loser Jesper de Jong. But the Dutchman outhit the 41-year-old former champ in a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win.
Qualifier Maja Chwalinska baffled injury-plagued Qinwen Zheng into a 6-4, 6-0 win with a loopy game, on the same court where Zheng won the Olympic gold medal two summers ago. She will drop out of the Top 100. Chwalinska is now 8-0 in sets since qualifying began last week.
Pablo Carreño Busta turned back the clock and took out Miami finalist Jiri Lehecka [12] 6-3, 7-6, 6-3, busting open the Taylor Fritz section of the draw even more.
Other upsets
Susan Bandecchi def. Cristina Bucsa [28] 6-4 2-6, 6-4
Camila Osorio def. Ekaterina Alexandrova [14] 6-2, 6-4
Alycia Parks def. Leylah Fernandez [24] 6-4, 6-4
Who Cruised
No one had an easier day than Rafael Jodar, who won his first-ever match at Roland Garros 6-1, 6-0, 6-4 over Aleksandar Kovacevic in 94 minutes. It was the fewest games allowed in a debut match here since Novak Djokovic gave up three games to Robby Ginepri in 2005. The 19-year-old Jodar has now won 16 of his last 19 matches, all on clay.
Iga Swiatek [3] took exactly an hour to beat young Aussie Emerson Jones 6-1, 6-2. Elena Rybakina [2], Amanda Anisimova [6], Karolina Muchova [10], Elise Mertens [23], Anastasia Potapova [28] and Jelena Ostapenko [29] also got through in straight sets.
Ben Sheldon [5], Alex de Minaur [8], Flavio Cobolli [10], Ugo Humbert [32] and Alex Michelsen won without dropping a set.
1973
Year that a Dutch player became the oldest man to win a match at Roland Garros
The player was 44 years old, and Stan Wawrinka would have been the first man over 41 since then to win a match at Roland Garros if he had come through today.
But the age isn’t the best detail of the story. It’s the mystery man’s identity (and a detail about a mid-match backrub that JW dug up).
Tiebreak Trivia
Stan Wawrinka was one of three men to beat Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray at a Slam during their careers. Who are the other two, both retired?
💡 The answer will be in Day 3’s Quick Served newsletter.
Day 1 answer: the Australian Open is the only Slam where Novak Djokovic has lost in the first round (2005 and 2006), and the opponent who went on to win the title and coach a current Top 20 player is Marat Safin.
Quick Hits
Here’s the best seat in Paris that’s not at Roland Garros. View of the Eiffel Tower–check.
Althea Gibson will be honored tomorrow for the 70th anniversary of her 1956 title, the first Slam ever won by a Black player. She is also front-and-center in the on-site museum’s new exhibit on women’s tennis.
Daniel Merida’s serve hit the tape, then the net post, then bounced in. What’s the call?
Thanasi Kokkinakis won the longest match of the day, a four-hour-18-minute battle over Terence Atmane. Kokkinakis came back from 2-5 in the fifth set to win–with a little help from Atmane, who whiffed an overhead and netted another in the homestretch.
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, who won the US Open mixed doubles title last year, are the top seeds in the Roland Garros mixed. Here’s the full draw.
Remember the name: Akasha Urhobo, a 19-year-old American who lost a close one today to Katie Boulter. The Athletic reports on her crush-and-rush style.
Novak put the DJ in Djokovic. The song’s fun!
Roger calls Wawrinka “Stanley” 🥹 ⬇️
🍿 Day 3 Matches
Coco Gauff [4] vs. Taylor Townsend
Felix Auger-Aliassime [4] vs. Daniel Altmaier
Naomi Osaka [16] vs. Laura Siegemund
Iva Jovic [17] vs. Alex Eala
Marin Cilic vs. Moise Kouame [WC]
Martin Landaluce vs. Juan Carlos Prado Angelo [WC]
Emma Navarro vs. Janice Tjen
Hsieh Su-Wei/Wang Xinyu vs. Daria Kasatkina/Camila Osorio
Marcel Granollers/Horacio Zeballos [1] vs. Marton Fucsovics/Marcos Giron
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A rising tide lifts all ships. Good for the brand name players for getting together to speak up. Profit sharing / “function of revenue” with the actual players should always be on the table for any form of sports entertainment. I don’t know about you, but I’m not tuning in to Grand Slam tennis to watch the performance of the tournaments’ catering logistics teams (as great as they are, I’m sure).