French Open Update: Czech hope is being lauded, Tsonga can’t stop the tears and Krejcikova is out!

So far, the biggest clay tournament in the world has brought many interesting moments, surprises and one big farewell to his professional career. We will focus not only on the Czech track.

Let’s start with the men’s bracket. One of the biggest highlights was Frenchman Jo-Wilfireid Tsonga. And that’s despite the fact that he couldn’t turn his almost 4 hour long battle with Ruud into a progression. The home legend and winner of 18 ATP tournaments played the last singles match of his career here. That’s right.

Tsonga, at 37, is retiring from tennis, at least at the professional level. He planned his farewell in Paris and he did well. After the match, he couldn’t stop the tears. The crowd gave him a standing ovation, thanked him for his storied career and even sang him the national anthem.

There was a long farewell on Philippe Chatrier’s court, with a video message from the greatest players of the era being played. Several coaches or tennis colleagues came to say goodbye in person. It was a powerful experience for all.

In the first round, the Czech number one, Jiri Vesely, said goodbye to the tournament, falling 1: 3 sets to Johnson. Jiří Lehečka also did not enter the tournament victoriously and ends up in the first round. His opponent is the Belgian Goffin.

The qualifier Zdenek Kolar, on the other hand, went on to defeat Poullius 3:1 and now has a huge challenge in front of him in the form of Greek Tsitsipas.

One of the biggest surprises so far is the advancement of Gaston, who managed to defeat De Minaur in a five-set battle, despite the fact that he was caned in the 4th set. The massive support from the stands did its job.

The same can be said about the match between Carreno-Busta and Simon. The Frenchman also advanced after 5 sets and was definitely not the favourite in the match. The bookmakers were giving him odds of around 12:1. But otherwise there are no big surprises and the favourites, although often with a lot of trouble, move on.

In the women’s part of the tournament, most of our tennis players will move on from the first round. Karolína Muchová saw off the home team Monnet in two sets 6: 3. Marie Bouzkova played her opening match in an even more calm manner, she faced Russian Gasanova who managed to play only 3 games. Unfortunately, she will not enter the second round.

Two sets were enough for Katerina Siniakova to advance. She had a tough opening and Croatia’s Martic. Petra Kvitova improved her performance after the tiebreak in the opening set and in the second act she swept the Hungarian Bondar 6: 1.

After a spectacular duel, the promising and talented Linda Noskova did not go through. She fell in three sets to the world number 12, Emma Raducanu. However, the Czech did not do badly at all and there is a lot of praise for her. Still only 17 years old, Linda has everything ahead of her.

Much more surprising is the elimination of the world number two and defending champion at Roland Garros, Barbora Krejcikova. She lost to the home team Parry and will lose a lot of points, which will result in her dropping out of the top 10 rankings. Tereza Martincova also left the tournament without winning a set.

Let’s take a closer look at the current highest ranked Czech in the game, Karolina Pliskova. She has been struggling with a hand injury for a long time. In March and April, she struggled to find the form she had before the injury. At several events, she packed it in right after the opening match, at most in the second round, and those were certainly not results to settle for when you’re the world No. 8 on the WTA circuit.

The preparation for Paris has gone much better and Caroline made it to the semi-finals in Strasbourg. Here at the FO she met a local wild card holder named Tessah Andrianjafitrimo in the 1st round. The Frenchwoman won the opening set, but the favourite managed to turn it around. On Thursday, the Czech will face a similar challenge. Again a home player and again a wild card. This time the queen of aces will face Leolia Jeanejean, who is currently ranked 227th on the rankings.

Round 2 matches are currently underway. Muchova was the first to enter the tournament, with the favoured Sakkari from Greece waiting for her. It was a much tougher match than the opening one. The crowd saw two tiebreaks, both in favour of the Czech. Muchova will play at least the 3rd round of this year’s Roland Garros. On the other hand, 0::2 from the Czech’s point of view was lit on the scoreboard after the matches of Katerina Siniakova and Petra Kvitova, who are thus out of the tournament.

There were a few surprises in the women’s draw as well. The first round was also the last for world number six Jabeur or number five Kontaveit. Krejcikova is mentioned above. After today, we have to count the dropout of Sakkari, who was also not completely counted on.

Of course, at the French Open, the singles tournament is running concurrently with the doubles tournament. The Czech Republic is traditionally very strongly represented there as well. Barbora Krejčíková and her partner Katerina Siniakova were the top seeds as two-time winners and defending champions from last year. Unfortunately, they withdrew. Lucie Hradecka and Tereza Martincova are in the game.

Zdenek Kolar and Karolina Pliskova will play their matches on Thursday, May 26. We will see how successful the tournament will be from the Czech perspective. We still have plenty of players and especially female players in the game!

Source: Roland Garros