French Open diary day four: Renzo Olivo stuns the French number one while Caroline Wozniacki breezes through
We round-up the key stories and look ahead to tomorrow's action at Roland-Garros
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Your support makes all the difference.The fourth day of the 2017 French Open began in dramatic fashion, as home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was eliminated in the first round after playing only one game, following the interruption of his Tuesday night match against Renzo Olivo because of poor light.
Tsonga’s surprising loss on Court Philippe Chatrier was almost followed up by an even more surprising exit, as defending champion Garbine Muguruza only narrowly avoided losing to the world number 99 Anett Kontaveit.
Here, we round-up all the big stories from the third day of the second Grand Slam of the season.
We also preview Thursday’s action.
The hero of day four
Perhaps a slightly contentious winner, giving that he only actually played one game on Wednesday, but Argentina’s Renzo Olivo gets the nod for finishing off home hope Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5 6-4 6-7(6) 6-4, after their match on Tuesday night was interrupted because of fading light.
Olivo, ranked a modest 91st in the world, had only ever qualified for two Grand Slams before: both in Australia. But in his first ever match at Roland-Garros, he stunned the 12th seed on his own turf with a formidable performance, eliminating the recent Lyon Open champion in the very first round.
“I didn't sleep well,” Olivo admitted afterward. “And I finished everything at around 1:00 in the morning. So it was really late. And then after, with the adrenaline of the match, I couldn't sleep much. So it was tough.” He will play Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund in the second round on Thursday.
Upset of the day
Talented 21-year-old Anett Kontaveit went mightily close to sending the defending champion Garbiñe Muguruza packing, but fell short just before the line, losing 6-7 6-4 6-2. One suspects she’ll be back.
But the unseeded American teenager CiCi Bellis did do enough to cause a genuine upset, as she beat 18th-seed Kiki Bertens.
Bertens has been in splendid form over the past weeks and had been tipped by many to win her first Grand Slam here in Paris, having made the semis last year. But she made a slow start and never recovered her composure, going down 6-3, 7-6 (5).
Performance of the day
Double-bagels at Grand Slams aren’t all that common, especially after the opening round. But having survived a slight scare against the Australian teenager Jamiee Fourlis on Monday, Wozniacki was back to her best against the hapless Françoise Abanda, winning 6-0 6-0.
Wozniacki was home and dry in just over 50 minutes, and will now play the American CiCi Bellis in the third round, who impressively knocked out the in-form Kiki Bertens. The score-line was a little harsh on Abanda, who was effectively playing her fifth match at the tournament having had to battle her way through the qualification stages.
Not that she was too impressed with Woz’s game, mind. “I wasn't impressed at all,” she replied when asked for her thoughts on the Dane. “As I told you, fitness-wise and physically, I was tired. Caroline played quite well. She was smart. I think that she played her second match. I played five matches. Physically, I couldn't sustain the challenge.”
Quote of the day
Make that quotes of the day. The full transcript of Dominic Thiem’s post-match press conference is far too good to cut down into one soundbite.
Q. Are you satisfied of what you have done today?
DOMINIC THIEM: It was a solid match, solid performance.
And a little bit of a bad start, I mean, 0-3. So it was a pretty early match, so I had a bad start, and then it got better and better. And I'm happy that I'm through in three sets.
Q. What did it feel to play against a guy who has skulls everywhere on his shirt? Does it bother you? You don't matter? You don't see it?
DOMINIC THIEM: He was what?
Q. His T-shirt. You didn't notice at all, like, the skulls that were in his shirt?
DOMINIC THIEM: I didn't understand the word.
Q. Skulls.
DOMINIC THIEM: Oh, skull.
I was not really scared, but — no. I know the brand. It's a nice brand. They make nice shirts. But I was not scared of the skulls.
And that was it. “I was not scared of the skulls”: you heard it here first, folks.
Stat attack
33: The number of winners Rafael Nadal hit in his straight-sets victory over the Dutchman Robin Haase. The Spaniard is going to be awfully difficult to stop.
Thursday’s order of play
PHILIPPE-CHATRIER COURT
Matches are listed in UK time
Barbora Strycova (CZE) [20] v Alizé Cornet (FRA)
Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [3] v Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)
Thiago Monteiro (BRA) v Gael Monfils (FRA) [15]
Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) v Karolina Pliskova (CZE) [2]
SUZANNE-LENGLEN COURT
Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL) v Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) [9]
Andy Murray (GBR) [1] v Martin Klizan (SVK)
Tatjana Maria (GER) v Simona Halep (ROU) [3]
Richard Gasquet (FRA) [24] v Victor Estrella Burgos (DOM)
COURT 1
Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS) v Marin Cilic (CRO) [7]
Jeremy Chardy (FRA) v Kei Nishikori (JPN) [8]
Chloe Paquet (FRA) v Caroline Garcia (FRA) [28]
Carina Witthoeft (GER) v Pauline Parmentier (FRA)
COURT 2
Elina Svitolina (UKR) [5] v Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL)
Nicolas Almagro (ESP) v Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) [29]
Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) [17] v Eugenie Bouchard (CAN)
Fernando Verdasco (ESP) v Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA)
COURT 3
David Ferrer (ESP) [30] v Feliciano Lopez (ESP)
Kevin Anderson (RSA) v Nick Kyrgios (AUS) [18]
Sorana Cirstea (ROU) v Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) [21]
Petra Martic (CRO) v Madison Keys (USA) [12]
COURT 6
Daria Kasatkina (RUS) [26] v Marketa Vondrousova (CZE)
Karen Khachanov (RUS) v Tomas Berdych (CZE) [13]
Renzo Olivo (ARG) v Kyle Edmund (GBR)
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) [16] v Veronica Cepede Royg (PAR)
COURT 14
John Isner (USA) [21] v Paolo Lorenzi (ITA)
Hyeon Chung (KOR) v Denis Istomin (UZB)
COURT 16
Doubles match
Doubles match
Elena Vesnina (RUS) [14] v Varvara Lepchenko (USA)
Nicolas Kicker (ARG) v Pablo Cuevas (URU) [22]
COURT 17
Magda Linette (POL) v Ana Konjuh (CRO) [29]
Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) v Taylor Townsend (USA)
Andreas Seppi (ITA) v Fabio Fognini (ITA) [28]
Mariana Duque-Marino (COL) v Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK)
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