The 2009 US Open champion returns to Roland Garros for the first time since his quarterfinal loss to Federer in 2012, and won his opening match 6-2 6-1 6-4 over qualifier and recent Munich finalist Guido Pella. He faces Nicolas Almagro tomorrow on court 2.
Enjoy a few pictures from his training session last Friday:
Now that Novak Djokovic has switched from Uniqlo to Lacoste, Kei Nishikori is the only top player sponsored by the Japanese brand. Let’s take a look at the outfit he will be wearing on the Parisian clay courts:
It’s already over for world number one Angelique Kerber knocked out by Eketerina Makarova 6-2 6-2. Given Kerber’s pretty bad results this year, it hardly comes as a surprise.
With that defeat, she became the first top-seed woman in the Open era to lose in the opening round at Roland Garros. She joins Virginia Ruzici (Australian Open 1979), Steffi Graf (Wimbledon 1994) and Martina Hingis (Wimbledon 1999 and 2001) as top seed who have fallen in the first round of a Grand Slam.
I watched Kerber at practice on court Lenglen on Thursday and I must say I was impressed neither by the intensity nor the quality of her training session. Enjoy a few pictures:
Lots of Japanese fans were on court number one to watch Kei practice with his coach Michael Chang. Nishikori will debut his Roland Garros campaign against Thanasi Kokkinakis on Tuesday. How far do you think he can go?
Lots of people to watch Rafa‘s training session on court number 1 yesterday. He appeared a bit grumpy, seemed frustrated by his forehand and talked quite a bit with Carlos Moya after practice. He then spent a good 10 minutes signing autographs before being interviewed on court. Rafa will debut his quest for a 10th Roland Garros title tomorrow against Benoit Paire on court Suzanne Lenglen.
Lower tournaments are a good opportunity to discover young players in the making like Karen Khachanov and Quentin Halys, or some charismatic veteran players like Rudy Coco.
