No more feverishly leafing through the calendar. Here we are. The Roland-Garros tournament begins this Sunday, with a program to make you want to stay wedged into your sofa despite the summer weather (and the absence of Rafael Nadal). A brief overview.
The poster of the day
Aryna Sabalenka – Marta Kostyuk, the first match of this fortnight on the central, from 11 am, it’s more than tennis. World No. 2, victorious in her first Grand Slam in January at the Australian Open and the Madrid tournament a month ago, the Belarusian will of course be the big favorite against the young 20-year-old Ukrainian.
But the 39th player in the world does not have words harsh enough to describe the policy of the authorities of her sport towards the Russians and their Belarusian allies since the invasion of her country. And at the last US Open, she refused to greet Sabalenka’s compatriot Victoria Azarenka at the end of their match. “If she hates me, it’s not reciprocal”, assured the latter on Friday at a press conference. Atmosphere.
Today’s favorites
Just after the duel mentioned above, Stefanos Tsitsipas will tread the ground of Philippe-Chatrier. At almost 25 years old, the Greek ephebe (seeded number 5) has still not hung a Grand Slam tournament on his record, and Roland-Garros seems the ideal place to get there. It is hard to imagine the Czech giant Jiri Vesely, now 455th in the world, breaking his dream of entry.
We are less formal for Andrey Rublev, opposed to the Serb Laslo Djere (60th). The Russian (7th) is of course favored by the forecasts, especially since he finally won a Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo. But his mind can still crack at any time. Meet at the Suzanne-Lenglen, where two outsiders will also line up in the women’s draw: the Greek Maria Sakkari (8th), facing the Czech Karolina Muchova who eliminated her last year in the 2nd round, and the American Jessica Pegula (3rd in the world, yes!), against her compatriot Danielle Collins, finalist of the Australian Open 2022.
The French of the day
It’s the first round, so there are plenty of them, of course. 10 exactly, with two fratricidal clashes. We will observe with curiosity the reunion on court 14 between Lucas Pouille and the Austrian lucky loser Jurij Rodionov, three days after the victory of the Northerner in the last qualifying round (1-6, 7-5, 6-0). But this time, it will be played in three winning sets. Provided that the former top 10 fell back to 675th in the world holds the shock, physically and emotionally.
Alize Cornet – Camila Giorgi (ITA)
Adrian Mannarino – Ugo Humbert
Karen Khachanov (RUS) – Constant Lestienne
Arthur Cazaux – Corentin Moutet
Nadia Podoroska (ARG) – Jessika Ponchet
Marton Fucsovics (HON) – Hugo Grenier
Leolia Jeanjean – Kimberly Birrell (AUS)
Lucas Pouille – Jurij Rodionov (AUT)
Today’s weather
Nice and warm according to Météo-France, which announces peaks of 26°C. It will change from the Giro and the Rome tournament.
The daring tip of the day
Mikael Ymer will not break rackets during his duel against Lorenzo Musetti. The Swede, 56th in the world, completely freaked out last Wednesday against Arthur Fils, in the quarter-finals of the Lyon tournament. Mad with rage against the referee, Ymer simply smashed the chair with his work tool, which earned him a disqualification. Jokes aside, it can make for a nice match against the Italian, seeded No. 17. The esthete from Carrara is above, but his chronic irregularity makes him perfectly capable of missing out on the event.