Former champion Garbine Muguruza battles back from a set down to avoid a shock early exit
Monday 27 May 2019 11:58, UK
Angelique Kerber and Venus Williams headlined the early exits from the women's draw after day one at the French Open in Paris.
This year's tournament did not have long to wait for the first of its upsets as fifth seed Kerber's disappointing clay-court record, coupled with an ankle injury that has seen her only just return from a month, were both in evidence.
The German, a three-time Grand Slam champion, has won the Australian Open, the US Open and Wimbledon but there will be no career Grand Slam this year as teenage Russian Anastasia Potapova blew her away with an impressive 6-4 6-2 victory.
"The year has been with up-and-downs and right now I lost here the first round, so what should I say?" said Kerber, who suffered her third first-round exit in the last four years in Paris.
"I'm disappointed, but I tried everything the last two weeks to be here to play a match, and I was happy about the process the last days, but at the end, I didn't have real match practice."
The former world no 1, who could have returned to the top of the rankings with a title triumph, suffered an ankle injury earlier this month and with just two matches on clay behind her, she was no match for Potapova who faces fellow Russian teenager Marketa Vondrousova in the second round.
It was a similar story but in very different circumstances for 2002 runner-up Williams, who was beaten by ninth seed Elina Svitolina in a high-profile first round match-up.
Twenty-two years after her debut, Williams was handed about as tough a draw as she could have expected as an unseeded player and the 39-year-old went down 6-3 6-3.
Injury problems have seen Williams slide down to 52 in the rankings and having racked up a catalogue of unforced errors she failed to make any inroads on Svitolina who put injury problems of her own behind her.
"Sometimes in a few matches in the past two months, I was not thinking about what I had to do on court. I was more away with the fairies," she admitted.
"But I learned a lot during these two months, and I tried to have the right mindset which was going to help me to handle this. And today it was a good example that I can do it."
Alongside Svitolina, world no 2 Karolina Pliskova is arguably the best player yet to claim a major Grand Slam singles title and having beaten Johanna Konta to the Rome title last weekend she arrives in form.
The Czech eased past American Madison Brengle 6-2 6-3 to join last year's runner-up Sloane Stephens in the second round - Stephens beating Misaki Doi 6-3 7-6.
Former champion Garbine Muguruza, who triumphed in Paris in 2016, had the honour of playing the first match on the new show court against Simonne Mathieu, but she had to do things the hard way.
The Spaniard, seeded 19th this year, was forced to recover from a set down to defeat Taylor Townsend 5-7 6-2 6-2, while Belinda Bencic and Petra Martic were among the other seeds in action and both had it relatively easy to advance in straight sets.
