Bill Simons and Vinay Venkatesh
PARIS
GAEL MONFILS WITHDRAWS: After an astounding shot by the 36-year-old Monfils, Radio Roland Garros gushed, “He’s enigmatic, he’s acrobatic, he’s magical and marvelous, and he simply refuses to disappear.” Monfils won the battle as he saved a match point against Argentina’s Sebastian Baez. But he lost the war. His five set battle took so much out of him that he had to withdraw from his match against Holger Rune that was scheduled for Friday night.
THE CAREER THAT BLOSSOMED IN A FRENCH GARDEN: In 2003, a Swiss not named Federer won the French Open junior championships. And as Stan Wawrinka was celebrating in Paris, a 7-year-old in Adelaide, Australia hadn’t yet picked up a racket.
Today, Thanasi Kokkinakis’s long, struggling singles career blossomed on the French Open’s famous garden court, Simonne-Mathieu. The 27-year-old is ranked No. 108 and has won only two Slam matches in the past two years. He’s famous for losing big-time thrillers. He’s often thought of quitting. “I disappeared for five years,” he once said. This year he was up by two sets over Andy Murray but lost.
Today, the Aussie dropped the first set of his match against three-time Slam winner Wawrinka. He told himself, “I can’t imagine what the journalists are going to tweet…I can’t lose another one of these.” So Thanasi enthralled a capacity crowd as he scored a rousing marathon win 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 win in 4:38.
Kokkinakis did win the 2022 Aussie doubles title with his pal Nick Kyrgios, but he hasn’t reached the third round of a Slam since the 2015 French Open.
VENUS TO RETURN: Venus Williams has been sidelined with a hamstring injury since early January and missed both the Australian and the French Opens. The legend’s ranking has dropped to No. 701, but she’ll be returning June 12 in Holland at the Libéma Open.
FRENCH DRAMA ON COURTE CENTRALE: After he won last night, France’s Gael Monfils fell to the clay, did a spread eagle and wept. Saturday, Yannick Noah, who was celebrated on Yannick Noah Day, came out in bare feet.
THE WILDEST QUESTION IN THE HISTORY OF THE TENNIS MEDIA: After Thiago Seyboth Wild’s shock victory over No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev yesterday, a reporter asked this question of the No. 172 player in the world, who’d never before won a Grand Slam match: “Thiago, you are a headline writer’s dream because of your surname. With that in mind, can you tell us, is this the wildest match and wildest victory you have ever had? Could you ever imagine beating Daniil even in your wildest dreams?”
AN UPSETTING STAT: Fourteen of the top women’s seeds have lost.
TIP OF THE DAY: After hitting a spectacular tweener today, Daria Kasatkina said that the secret of hitting the crowd pleaser is just not to think about it.
WOMEN ENGAGE PARTNERS, MEN DISENGAGE COACHES: Madison Keys, the popular 28-year-old American who’s now ranked No. 20, announced her engagement online to American Bjorn Fratangelo, the former top 100 player. A couple of years ago, two-time Slam champ Garbine Muguruza went out for a walk in Central Park. It was quite a walk. Arthur Borges, an outgoing tennis fan, wished her luck at the US Open and the two struck up a conversation. Now they are engaged and plan to be wed in Spain.
But, as usual, there are plenty of relationships in tennis that aren’t working. Stefanos Tsitsipas, whose primary coach has long been his dad Apostolos Tsitsipas, said he had too many coaching voices in his ear and has dismissed Mark Philippoussis.
Alexander Zverev has parted ways with his Spanish coach, Sergey Brugera. The German has a history of short-lived coaching alliances, including with Ivan Lendl, Juan Carlos Ferraro and David Ferrer.
THE VARIETIES OF ARYNA SABALENKA’S EXPERIENCES: After she won in Melbourne, Australian Open officials understandably put Aryna Sabalenka on a pedestal and essentially made her queen for a day. They rented a gondola and a handsome gondolier and she beamed as he floated down a river in a garden park.
Then, inexplicably, on her birthday in Madrid, she found herself in an odd controversy when she got a much smaller birthday cake than Carlos Alcaraz – go figure.
But, more impactfully, the Belarusian, whose life is all about tennis, has found herself entwined in nasty issues of war.
PEYTON’S PLACE IN PARIS: Powerful Peyton Stearns has a great collegiate record. She won the NCAA singles championships and has had a good year. But getting to the very top of the WTA is a big ask. Coming into the French Open, the University of Texas product, who’s now ranked No. 69, had never won a Grand Slam match. But in Paris, she began her Roland Garros run by downing the former French Open doubles champion, Katerina Siniakova.
Today she faced another European with a Slam trophy. But no worries, Sterns has been in rough environments before. (The 21-year old confided that playing at Oklahoma State was kind of insane).
Today against former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, No. 17, the bright American prospect unleashed her power game. An American observer on Court 14 dared to state the obvious: “Stearns has really turned this court into Peyton’s place.” She won 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, and in the third round will play the Russian native and No. 9 seed Daria Kasatkina.
THE BATTLE OF THE GRANDMAS: When Victoria Azarenka was struggling early in her career and was complaining how tough it is to play tennis for a living, her Belarusian grandmother let her have it, and reminded her that she scrubbed floors and worked two jobs. Vika got the message.
Similarly last night when Bianca Andreescu was struggling against Vika she began to think of her grandmother. “I started thinking about her because she’s getting old, and I’m very close to her. In Romanian she said to me, “Bianca, I really want to watch you win another major.” So I had that in the back of my head when I was down 3-1 and I started to get emotional and started playing better…and reminding myself why I play the sport.”
TODAY’S PHENOM DU JOUR: The enchanting 16-year-old sensation Mirra Andeeva drew Andy Murray’s attention in Madrid, and here in Paris the bubbly Russian is drawing dazzling reviews. Remember the name.
THE DAY A FAMOUS ARENA CHANGED ITS NAME: Today some called Court Suzanne Lenglen “Lenglen Arena.” That’s because “Aryna” Sabalenka faced off against “Iryna” Shymanovich.
