Sinner sends Goffin packing from Paris, Coric and Evans also out
Jannik Sinner takes down David Goffin in round one of the French Open on Sunday afternoon. It was a better start to the tournament for seeds John Isner and Taylor Fritz.
Sinner Roland Garros 2020
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The results we expected
The first two men’s seeds through to the second round at Roland-Garros hail from the United States. No 21 John Isner had no trouble in relatively cold and damp conditions, as he took care of French wild card Elliott Benchetrit 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 in a mere one hour and 41 minutes.
Benchetrit certainly was not happy after failing to convert a break point midway through the third set.
Wait for the last bit.#RG20 | Elliot Benchetrit pic.twitter.com/acOMjGCPvl
— Ashish 🎾🎥 (@tennis_gifs) September 27, 2020
No 27 Taylor Fritz had a much tougher time than Isner closing out his match from two sets up. Fritz eventually outlasted 19-year-old Czech qualifier Tomas Machac 7-5, 7-6(2), 1-6, 2-6, 6-3 after three hours and 39 minutes.
No 25 Benoit Paire joined Isner and Fritz in round two later in the afternoon. Although the Frenchman is seeded, so win for him is expected these days given the tumultuous summer that he has endured. Nonetheless, Paire raised his level from out of nowhere to defeat Soonwoo Kwon 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.
No 16 Stan Wawrinka made easy work of a marquee matchup with Andy Murray, cruising 6-1, 6-3, 6-2.
No 6 Alexander Zverev, the recent US Open runner-up, dismissed Dennis Novak 7-5, 6-2, 6-4.
The surprises of the day
No 11 seed David Goffin is out after just one match, which is a surprise but perhaps not a huge shock given his draw. The Belgian had to go up against rising star Jannik Sinner, a 19-year-old Italian already ranked 74th in the world. It was Sinner who handled the conditions better from start to finish, upsetting Goffin 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 in one hour and 59 minutes.
No 25 seed Alex de Minaur had a tough clay-court matchup on his hands with former French Open semi-finalist Marco Cecchinato — and it proved to be too tough. Cecchinato came away with a 7-6(9), 6-4, 6-0 win.
No 24 Borna Coric was a quarter-finalist at the US Open, but he is out right away in Paris. The Croat fell to Norbert Gombos 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Qualifier Benjamin Bonzi kept up his fine form at Roland-Garros by winning a main-draw match at the expense of Emil Ruusuvuori 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
The hard-fought battles of the day
The comeback of Kei Nishikori from an elbow injury picked up some much-needed momentum with a 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-4 victory over No 32 Dan Evans. As the score suggests, it was a roller-coaster ride from start to finish and lasted a total of three hours and 49 minutes. Nishikori advances to meet Stefano Travaglia and could run into Rafael Nadal in the third round.
Qualifier Jurij Rodionov earned the first ATP-level, main-draw victory of his career and did it the hard way. The 21-year-old Austrian battled to a 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4, 10-8 victory over veteran Frenchman Jeremy Chardy after four hours and 36 minutes. Chardy served for the match in the third set and had a match point at 6-5 in the third-set tiebreaker. Rodionov failed to serve out the match twice in the fifth set before finally converting at 9-8, clinching his seventh match point.
In an all-Argentine showdown, Juan Ignacio Londero was the last man standing in a 6-4, 7-6(1), 2-6, 1-6, 14-12 thriller against Federico Delbonis. It ended after 9:30 pm with rain coming down heavily and lasted a total of four hours and 54 minutes.
