| By Chris Oddo |
Photo Credit: Pascal Guyot/AFP/GettyImages |
(May 27, 2012)— The French Open’s first Sunday is in the books, and a few seeds have already fallen.
26th-seeded Andy Roddick, never a heavy favorite on the red clay that he detests, was upended by fan favorite Nicolas Mahut in a match that was surprisingly one-sided, especially given the pair’s previous history.
Mahut, who had fallen in all of his four previous tilts against the former Grand Slam champion, proved to be anything but bogged down by that fact today, as he raced out to a two set lead, then turned on the afterburners after dropping the third set to win 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
The effort was a sparkling one from Mahut, who is no clay-court guru himself and took an anemic 6-20 clay-court record into this year’s event. But he was fantastic today, drilling some heavy backhand returns that stunned Roddick and converting on each of the seven break points he earned.
Mahut’s victory was only his second at Roland Garros in ten matches, and it brought on heartfelt applause from the paying customers and many blown kisses from Mahut.
And if that wasn’t enough to get the French faithful fired up, No. 5 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga put a charge into the crowd as well. After hitting the snooze button several times during the first set, Tsonga awoke to destroy 21-year-old Andrey Kuznetsov 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Tsonga failed on his first eight break point opportunities (all in the first set), but managed to hit on four of his next ten over the final three sets to pull away from the upset-minded Russian.
In other men’s action, 9th-seeded Juan Martin del Potro survived an injury scare and the clay-court stylings of 30-year-old Spaniard Albert Montanes to advance with a 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-1 victory. After the match Del Potro revealed that his left knee has been bothering him since Madrid, but assured the press that he’d be okay after a few days off and some physio.
2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero was also among the day 1 winners. The Spaniard, one of 37 players aged thirty or greater in the draw, took out Frenchman Jonathan Dasnieres de Viegy 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.
Things didn’t go nearly as well for another thirty-something, Jurgen Melzer. The No. 30 seed and 2010 semifinalist was a hard luck loser at the hands of German Michael Berrer today. Berrer, also in the thirty-something club, came back from a two-set deficit to defeat Melzer 6-7(5), 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.
Other winners included 18th-seeded Stan Wawrinka, who was forced to go the distance by the pesky Italian Flavio Cipolla, 14th-seeded Fernando Verdasco, who hammered Belgian Steve Darcis in straight sets, and 21st-seede Marin Cilic, who toppled Daniel de la Nava of Spain, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.
Gilles Muller, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, Pablo Andujar and Fabio Fonigni were also winners on day 1.