French Open diary day three: Juan Martin del Potro returns with a win and Eugenie Bouchard battles through the pain
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.It was a bumper day of French Open action for British tennis fans on Tuesday, with World No 1 Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund both winning their first round matches in the men’s singles, but Johanna Konta suffering a desperately disappointing defeat to the unseeded Su-Wei Hsieh.
Tuesday also saw one of the favourites to win the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen begin her campaign. Simona Halep rolled her ankle in the final of the Italian Open and was briefly a doubt to participate at Roland-Garros, but shared off her injury concerns to breeze past Jana Cepelova 6-2 6-3.
Here, we round-up all the big stories from the third day of the second Grand Slam of the season.
We also preview Wednesday’s action.
The hero of day three
It has been so long since he last played at Roland-Garros, that Juan Martin del Potro revealed that he had ended up lost while trying to find his way to Court No 6 for his first round match against Argentinian qualifier Guido Pella. “I never find the place where I have to go,” Del Potro sighed in his post match presser.
Fortunately, the former US Open champion will have some more time in Paris to acquaint himself with the city and its famous tennis club. He has not played at the French Open in five years because of injury problems, but marked his comeback with an emphatic 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 win.
Should he win his next match, against Nicolás Almagro, he will most likely face Andy Murray in the third round in a match that already promises to be a classic. Although DelPo is refusing to let himself get too carried away just yet. "I have adopted a sort of wait-and-see attitude. We'll see," he replied when asked if he was looking forward to possibly playing Murray.
“I try not to make things too complicated, and I try not to set long-term objectives. I really play match by match.”
Upset of the day
Again, there are a number of contenders, and Fernando Verdasco’s triumph over Alexander Zverev — who was considered a legitimate dark horse to win this tournament — certainly deserves a mention.
But Su-Wei Hsieh has to take it, for her three set victory over Great Britain’s Johanna Konta. The Taiwanese player had never previously beaten a player in the top ten, and had only previously won one match at the French Open.
Performance of the day
Eugenie Bouchard has been a woman transformed since her personal grudge match against Maria Sharapova at the Stuttgart Open. The Canadian had to play out of her skin to end a poor run of form to beat Sharapova on that ocassion, and was forced to dig deep again today, recovering from losing the opening set to beat World No 70 Risa Ozaki.
Bouchard had to overcome an ankle injury to beat Ozaki 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, having fallen 5-0 behind in the opening set. And it was only after her win that the full extent of her ankle problem — suffered practising for the Nuremberg Cup last week — became clear.
“A few days ago there were big questions about if I could play,” she revealed after her victory. “It was definitely a race against the clock. At the beginning I didn’t feel too comfortable and was questioning if I had made the right decision. But I got myself together, and in the end managed to fight though it.”
Brit watch
The two British number ones both began their French Open campaigns on Court Philippe Chatrie, with wildly different outcomes. Johanna Konta breezed through the first set of her match against the unfancied Su-Wei Hsieh before losing 1-6, 7-6, 6-4, while Andy Murray got it done in four against Andrey Kuznetsov: 6-4 4-6 6-2 6-0.
Elsewhere, British number two Kyle Edmund breezed into the second round for a third year in a row with a convincing 6-3 6-2 7-5 victory over Portugal's Gastao Elias, in a performance lasting only an hour and 46 minutes.
The challenge for the 22-year-old is to now make it into the third round here for the very first time. His run to the fourth round of last season’s US Open all no doubt give him confidence that he can pick up at least one more win, especially considering that clay is in fact his favoured surface.
He will now play either Renzo Olivo or the home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Quote of the day
“I played absolute shit made the difference. It is quite simple.”
Alexander Zverev’s answer to the question ‘what do you think made the difference today?’ after his surprise 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 loss to Fernando Verdasco.
Stat attack
17: The age of Markéta Vondroušová, who defeated Frenchwoman Amandine Hesse 6-1 6-0 for her first ever Grand Slam win.
Wednesday's order of play
Philippe-Chatrier (from 10am UK time)
Williams v Nara
Muguruza v Kontaveit
Haase v Nadal
Pouille v Bellucci
Suzanne-Lenglen (from 10am UK time)
Thiem v Bolelli
Sousa v Djokovic
Errani v Mladenovic
Jabeur v Cibulkova
Court 1 (from 10am UK time)
Mattek-Sands v Kvitova
Robredo v Dimitrov
Raonic v Dutra Silva
Dodin v Kuznetsova
Court 2 (from 10am UK time)
Stakhovsky v Goffin
Bellis v Bertens
Wozniacki v Abanda
Bonzi v Ramos-Vinolas
Court 3 (from 10am UK time)
Stosur v Flipkens
Karlovic v Zeballos
Kyrgios/Thompson v Herbert/Mahut
Vesely v Bedene
Court 4 (from 10am UK time)
Chan/Peers v Spears/Cabal
Gavrilova/Pavlyuchenkova v Mirza/Shvedova
Albie/Tan v Parmentier/Wickmayer
Capelova/Hsieh v Nara/Ozaki
Lestienne/Moutet v Brown/Lu
Court 5 (from 10am UK time)
Kichenok/Kichenok v Konjuh/Linette
Hibino/Rosolska v Jankovic/Vandweghe
Darcis/Paire v Elgin/Khachanov
Struff/Zverev v Jacq/Nys
Hradecka/Siniakova v Davis/Melichar
Court 6 (from 10am UK time)
Coric v Johnson
Hogenkamp v Mertens
Carreno Busta v Daniel
Petzschner/Peya v Bryan/Bryan
Court 8 (from 10am UK time)
Partaud/Razzano v Barty/Dellacqua
Napolitano v Schwartzman
Andrianjafitrimo/Hesse v Babos/Hlavackova
Beck/Voracova v Chan/Krejcikova
Dzalamidze/Kudermetova v Krunic/Tomljanovic
Court 10 (from 10am UK time)
Matkowski/Roger-Vasselin v Monroe/Sitak
Klepac/Sanchez v Cirstea/Vekic
Kubot/Melo v Bolelli/Fognini
Daniell/Demoliner v Dodig/Granollers
Court 14 (from 10am UK time)
Larsson v Putintseva
Basilashvili v Troicki
Bacsinszky v Brengle
Kukushkin v Bautista Agut
Court 15 (from 10am UK time)
Koolhof/Middelkoop v Jaziri/Seppi
Mergea/Qureshi v Verdasco/Zimonjic
Lepchenko/Rodina v Duan/Peng
Almagro/Johnson v Raja/Sharan
Court 16 (from 10am UK time)
Makarova v Tsurenko
Buyukakcay v Rogers
Ferro/Yerolymos v Makarova/Vesnina
Groenefeld/Peschke v Georges/Paquet
Eysseric/Lamasine v Marach/Pavic
Court 17 (from 10am UK time)
Ostapenko v Puig
Bourgue/Mathieu v Bopanna/Cuevas
Trungelliti v Garcia-Lopez
Zhang v Sasnovich
Court 18 (from 10am UK time)
Barthel/Witthoeft v Jurak/Rodionova
Hozumi/Kato v Muhammad/Townsend
Lipsky/Paes v Albot/Chung
Olaru/Savchuk v Minells/Sevastova
Baker/Mektic v Groth/Lindstedt
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