Kvitova cruises, Muchova falls to McHale in French Open first round
Petra Kvitova gets Monday’s French Open action underway with a straight-set victory, and she is joined in the second round by Kiki Bertens and Amanada Anisimov.
Petra Kvitova, Prague 2020
The results we expected
Based on the forecast it was no surprise, but rain was the story at the beginning of Day 2 in Paris. As a result, Petra Kvitova and Oceane Dodin were the only players on the court between 11:00 am and noon — able to contest their match under the Court Philippe Chatrier roof. The seventh-seeded Kvitova ended up taking care of business with a 6-3, 7-5 victory.
After the rain subsided, No 5 Kiki Bertens got off to a slow start but overcame Katarina Zavatska 2-6, 6-2, 6-0. No 25 Amanda Anisimova advanced with the same set scores at Bertens’ last two against Zavatska, but she did not lose the first beforehand. Anisimova, a semi-finalist last year at Roland-Garros, crushed Tamara Korpatsch 6-2, 6-0.
No 3 seed Elina Svitolina held off Varvara Gracheva 7-6(2), 6-4.
No 6 seed Serena Williams dismissed fellow American Kristie Ahn 7-6(2), 6-0. It was a rematch of the US Open first round, which Williams also won in straight sets.
One down, six to go to reach the 🏆.@serenawilliams is through her opening match, defeating Ahn 7-6(2), 6-0.#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/9l8Mphx92k
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) September 28, 2020
The surprises of the day
Monday’s first seeded casualty was No 22 Karolina Muchova, who went down to Christina McHale 6-2, 6-4. McHale broke serve five times and won more than half of her return points (53 percent) throughout the whole match.
Neither one of last year’s finalists will be back on championship Saturday. Reigning champion Ashleigh Barty skipped the tournament this season and runner-up Marketa Vondrousova is out after just one match. Vondrousova, the 15th seed, got crushed by Iga Swiatek 6-1, 6-2.
Due to injury, No 12 seed Madison Keys did not play a match in between the French Open and US Open. The American’s rust showed during a 6-3, 7-6(2) loss to Shuai Zhang.
No 28 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also packed her bags after succumbing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 2-6, 6-1.
The hard-fought battles of the day
Katerina Siniakova is off to another strong start at Roland-Garros. The 61st-ranked Czech, who upset Elena Rybakina, Maria Sakkari, and Naomi Osaka en route to the fourth round last year, survived a tough first set and then raced away from Lauren Davis for a 7-6(5), 6-2 victory.
Garbine Muguruza, the 11th seed in the tournament, took a while to take down Slovenian Tamara Zindasek. The Rome semi-finalist dropped her second set 6-4 after winning the first 7-5, and the third went all the way to 8-6, where the Spaniard was able to serve out to finish the three-hour victory.
