2020 French Open: Simona Halep, Victoria Azarenka start off with strong wins

Russian qualifier Kamilla Rakhimova was the first winner of the 2020 French Open among the women. The world no. 187 upset American Shelby Rogers in their first-round meeting in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and four minutes, on Sunday.

This is the 19-year-old’s first main draw appearance in a Slam and her win over the 2020 US Open quarter-finalist is her first against an opponent ranked in the top-100. Rakhimova finished the match with 63 points, of which 22 were winners. She hit 14 unforced errors. Rogers, on the other hand, had 17 winners and 19 unforced errors. She finished the match with 40 points for the match.

Rakhimova will play Greek’s 20th seed Maria Sakkari in the round-of-64.

Sakkari, who was also among the early winners of the day, put up a dominant showing against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in their round-of-128 match. The world no. 24 won 6-0. 7-5 in an hour and 16 minutes. The opening set, as reflected in the score-line was entirely directed by Sakkari but the Tomljanovic showed signs of a fightback in the second set. Her resistance, however, lasted up to the 12th game of the set as trying to stay in the set – and in the match – Tomljanovic was broken decisively which resulted in her exit from the event.

2020 French Open: Past champion Simona Halep moves on 

Former semi-finalist Victoria Azarenka reached the second round with a win over Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic. The 10th seed Belarusian won comfortably 6-1, 6-2 in merely 61 minutes to set up a second-round showdown against either Anna Karolina Schmiedlova or Venus Williams.

Earlier, Azarenka left the court in anger about the playing conditions during the first set. With the rain pouring, the world no. 14 wasn’t too eager to play on and following her lengthy argument with the officials, followed by her walk-out, play had to be stopped for a while. When it resumed, Azarenka picked up from where she left off, ending the match without much of a fuss.

Australian lucky loser Astra Sharma booked a round-of-64 meeting against the 27th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova. In her opening-round match, Sharma survived a third-set comeback by her opponent, Russian Anna Blinkova, to win 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in two hours and 14 minutes. Meanwhile, Blinkova’s compatriot Alexandrova beat another Australian, Maddison Inglis 6-3, 6-3 in their first-round match.

Kaia Kanepi and 16th seed Elise Mertens will play each other for a place in the round-of-32 in Paris. Kanepi defeated the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 13 minutes. The Belgian, meanwhile, beat Russian Margarita Gasparyan 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and 43 minutes.

Lastly, the 2018 titlist and world no. 2 Simona Halep advanced to the second round in the French capital. The top-seed won against Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-4, 6-0 in an hour and 22 minutes.

Despite the easy-looking score, Halep’s performance wasn’t the cleanest on the day. Both players were inconsistent but when it mattered the most, Halep reined in her erratic game to come out on top against the world no. 78.

For the match, Halep won 69% of her first-serve points to Tormo’s 38%. The Romanian finished with 23 winners and 23 unforced errors. The Spaniard had just 10 winners and 16 unforced errors. In entirety, Halep won 63 points in the match to Tormo’s 40.

The former world no. 1 could play either compatriot Irina Camelia-Begu, or Swiss Jil Teichmann in the second round of the 2020 French Open.

Photo Credit: Roland Garros Twitter

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