Opening Sunday at Roland Garros was hot, busy and full of unexpected gems.
Petra Kvitova in her first match in six months after her playing hand was stabbed—and winning? Barely a dry eye in the house.
Ekaterina Makarova beaming with pleasure after beating Angelique Kerber, not because she had made history in putting out the French Open’s top seed for the first time in the Open era but because she had done it on the biggest court of all.
“I actually never played my singles on Philippe Chatrier here for nine years of playing in the main draw… today was a special day for me!”
Grigor Dimitrov winning his first match here after a four-year drought? His smile said it all when asked about breaking his duck:
“I was sure that question was coming. It’s great. I’m so happy… was a good day for me.”
Then there was evergreen Venus Williams, the oldest woman here and with more matches played at Roland Garros than anyone else. She moved second behind her absent sister, Serena, among all active players with her 65th.
And talking of veterans, there was a packed house on Court 3 for the return of 35-year-old Tommy Robredo from foot surgery and a ranking of 271. Eleven of the Spaniard’s titles had come on clay, and five times he had reached the quarters of the French Open since his first appearance in 2001. And it all came flooding back as the Spaniard beat Daniel Evans, almost a decade his junior, for a place in the second round.
But the big guns would fire up on a fiery Monday, when the temperatures were already heading to 30C by 10am.
The men’s defending champion, Novak Djokovic, would open his campaign in the main arena, while at the same time, nine-time champion Rafael Nadal would go for a record 10th, having already done so in Barcelona and Monte-Carlo.
The women’s defending champion, Garbine Muguruza, would open proceedings while former finalist Sam Stosur, 33 and fresh from victory in Strasbourg, would attempt to emulate last year’s semi run here. Meanwhile out on Court 8, three-time Roland Garros semi-finalist Jelena Jankovic, ranked at just 63, was creating a small record of her own: This 54th straight appearance at a Major is the longest active run in women’s tennis.
However, Jankovic had some way to go to match another woman with some real French Open credentials, and a 61-match Major run, Francesca Schiavone.
The popular Italian, a big personality in a petite package, won her first Major title here in 2010 and made the final the next year, too—when already into her 30s. It marked the first time in the Open era that a woman outside the top 10 had won the title.
Now Schiavone was playing what she had suggested would be her final year. She had after all begun this year outside the top 100 and, without a win through to Miami, was down at 151 by April. But then the old Schiavone emerged back on clay, with a title in Bogota and a final the very next week in Rabat. Was this feisty player aiming to go out of her favourite Major in a blaze of glory?
Unfortunately for her, she was drawn against Muguruza in the first round, and it did not start well, as the 23-year-old Spaniard came out all guns blazing. She made the semis in Rome before retiring with a neck problem, but there was no sign of any problem here. At 6ft tall, the elegant No4 seed, wearing an equally elegant French-inspired white dress, pounded the ball past Schiavone to break in the first game, and broke again for a 3-0 lead.
A couple of backhand passes from Schiavone pulled one back, to cheers from the crowd, but play was halted for around a quarter of an hour as a spectator succumbed to the heat, and on resumption, Schiavone’s rhythm was gone. Muguruza won 12 straight points to finish off the set, 6-2.
The second set followed a similar pattern, with Muguruza breaking in the first game, but Schiavone broke back for 2-2. The Italian almost got a break in sixth game, too, but some fine serving from the Spaniard kept her on track, and a sweep of errors from Schiavone handed over a love break.
The match looked done and dusted, but that is to underestimate the Italian. All at once, Schiavone had a break point as she forced a high backhand error from her opponent. Muguruza, though, saved it and resisted through four deuces and over nine minutes. The Italian suddenly threw in two net charges, and while the first one worked, the second went astray, and the match was done, 6-4.
This was the expected result but bitter-sweet nevertheless. Tennis has always been the richer for the fighting, heart-on-the sleeve spirit of Schiavone, and this may be her last appearance at the site of her greatest success. Yet clearly emotional after her loss, she left the door ajar just a fraction that she may reconsider.
“You never know. For the moment, I want to live this moment, this year. I have to see how I feel physically. You know, is not easy to wake up and run again for six hours and push yourself. But we will see. I think after US Open I will ask myself what I want to do.”
Will the decision be driven by the physical or the emotional? She smiled:
“I think is both—mental, heart, physically. I don’t know yet, because I didn’t finish. But for today I was really impressed with my emotions. I was really impressed. I say, Come on!”
And what of those other tough women still giving their all into their 30s?
Well Jankovic, lost in just 71 minutes, to Richel Hogenkamp, 6-2, 7-5, but Stosur sailed past Kristina Kucova, 7-5, 6-1, in an hour and 18 minutes.
Another 30-year-old, tiny Sara Errani—rather like compatriot Schiavone—had suffered a slip in form and rankings to 91, but she too has scored some of her best wins at Roland Garros. She was runner-up in 2012, and subsequently made the semis and two quarters, though she fell at the first hurdle last year.
She did at least have the benefit of playing an unseeded player, though the young Misaki Doi was dangerous—here from a semi run in Nurnberg. Yet Errani edged a long opening set, 7-6(7) before racing through the second 6-1. She will next play No13 seed Kristina Mladenovic.
But on the day that Schiavone bowed out of Roland Garros, perhaps for the last time, she will have the last word—about Venus Williams, but also about herself.
“I didn’t imagine, I couldn’t imagine to keep going to play tennis and arrive so high. It’s something that you do step by step, year by year. Can you see Venus that she’s playing 20 years here? It’s amazing. It’s something very special that if you love the sport you can do it. Just if you go through problems physically and you keep going to work and push your limits every time, I think is fantastic. I see Venus here, and I say, ‘Wow, this is a big example for everybody.’”