World No 2 Rafael Nadal kicks off his 16th campaign in France with a win over Egor Gerasimov of Belarus, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, for his 94th career win at Roland-Garros on Monday.
Nadal served well from the start on Monday and only surrendered a single break. That came only after the No.2 seed had raced out to a two sets lead.
In the third set, after Gerasimov broke to lead 2-0; Nadal responded and won the next six games to lock up victory in a crisp two hours and five minutes.
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Watch the match highlights below
“The only thing I can do is just stay positive, do my job, try my best every single day,” Nadal says. “That’s what I did since I arrived here – practised with the right attitude, being positive, and that’s what I did today in the match.”
“I’m going to practise every single day and play the matches with the most positive attitude possible.”
“It’s true that it’s a different Roland-Garros, it’s completely different than what we are used to, the meteorological conditions are very challenging, but here we are to try our best, and for me, this year is as special as everyone that I am here in Roland-Garros.”
Nadal improves to 94-2 lifetime at Roland-Garros and sets up a second-round battle with American Mackenzie McDonald who is ranked No.236 in the world.
In a typical clay-court season, with four tournaments across Europe under his belt, the task would be simpler.
Russia’s fourth seed Daniil Medvedev crashes out in the first round for the fourth straight season
No.4 seed Daniil Medvedev dropped to 0-4 lifetime at Roland-Garros on Monday as he was beaten 6-4, 7-6(3) 2-6, 6-1 on Court Suzanne-Lenglen by Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, who scored a maiden top-10 win on his 15th attempt.
It was, quite simply, Fucsovics’ night.
The world No.63 mixed up his strokes, keeping Medvedev off balance with a steady diet of slice and defended all corners of the court exceptionally well. He struck 36 winners to 27 for Medvedev, and his milestone victory sets up a second-round encounter with Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Watch the match highlights below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBPvn0i7XmI
Fucsovics, who became the first Hungarian to win an ATP title in 36 years in 2018 at Geneva, entered the match with zero victories in 14 previous matches against top 10-ranked players.
“It’s one of my biggest wins tonight,” he says on court after the match. “First time I beat a top-10 player, especially in a Grand Slam. I really wanted to show that I’m a very good player, and I also want to be in the top 10.”
Medvedev’s losing streak on clay has now stretched to six as he has yet to win on clay since he defeated Dominic Thiem to reach the Barcelona final in 2019.
Before the tournament, Medvedev had talked of changing his fortunes in Paris and said it was something he was anxiously awaiting.
“Yeah, it would be definitely really exciting to get my first win here,” he had said. “It’s something for sure I want to get. Of course, I have to work really hard for it.”
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