Alcaraz, Ruud, Swiatek Start Roland Garros with Easy Wins; Fritz, Osaka, Navarro Exit Early

PARIS: Reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz kicked off his French Open campaign with a commanding straight-sets victory over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri on Monday.

The Spaniard struck 31 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over world number 310 Zeppieri and will face Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in round two.

Alcaraz is the title favourite at Roland Garros after winning both the Monte Carlo Masters and Italian Open trophies this year on clay.

The four-time Grand Slam champion saved all three break points he faced against Zeppieri on Court Suzanne Lenglen as he cruised through in second gear.

Alcaraz is now on an eight-match winning streak at the French Open and also won Olympic silver at Roland Garros last year, losing the final to Novak Djokovic.

Twice former runner-up Casper Ruud eased into the French Open second round on Monday with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Spanish qualifier Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Ruud captured the biggest title of his career on clay in Madrid earlier this month and has twice reached the final at Roland Garros, in 2022 and 2023.

The Norwegian seventh seed goes on to face Portugal’s Nuno Borges for a place in the last 32.

The defending French Open champion in women’s section Iga Swiatek kicked off her 2025 campaign with a hard-fought 6-3, 6-3 victory over Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova, extending her stunning unbeaten run at Roland Garros to 22 matches.

Against world number 42 Sramkova, Swiatek was pushed early. Her signature fast start didn’t come as easily this time. She had to dig deep to hold her opening service game and didn’t fully settle until stringing together the final three games of the first set.

Even then, Sramkova landed a blow, breaking the three-time champion to begin the second set. But Swiatek responded in kind — levelling at 3-3 before breaking again and reeling off three straight games to wrap up the match in one hour and 35 minutes.

The win sets up a second-round showdown against Britain’s Emma Raducanu.

Raducanu summoned every ounce of resilience to overcome both physical adversity and mounting scrutiny, defeating China’s Wang Xinyu 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in a two-hour 44-minute thriller.

Spanish 10th seed Paula Badosa came from a set down to beat four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka 6-7 (1/7), 6-1, 6-4.

Badosa let a set point slip away on serve in the opener before Osaka dominated the tie-break.

Osaka took a medical timeout and had her cherry blossom-themed nails trimmed between sets, after which Badosa won the first five games of the second set.

The Japanese former world number one regrouped and took a 2-0 lead in the decider but Badosa soon pulled level before landing the decisive break in the seventh game.

Germany’s Daniel Altmaier lit up Roland Garros with the first major upset of the tournament.

The World No. 66 delivered a composed and powerful performance to knock out fourth seed Taylor Fritz in four sets—7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1—sending shockwaves through the men’s draw.

Altmaier, known for his grit and clay-court craft, played fearless tennis throughout the two-hour, 41-minute encounter, blunting Fritz’s big-hitting game with a mix of aggression, control, and tactical intelligence.

His 44 winners were a testament to that approach, many of them coming from deep, heavy forehands that pinned the American behind the baseline.

On the other hand, US Open semifinalist Emma Navarro only lasted 57 minutes at the French Open, losing 6-0, 6-1 in the first round on Monday to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain.

On Court Suzanne-Lenglen, the 68th-ranked Bouzas Maneiro dominated the match and reached the second round at Roland-Garros for the first time.

Caroline Garcia wiped away a tear in the tunnel leading to Court Suzanne-Lenglen. She brushed it off, smiled, then stepped into the light — for what turned out to be her final singles match at the French Open.

The 31-year-old Frenchwoman, who announced on Friday she will retire later this season, lost in the first round to American Bernarda Pera 6-4, 6-4.

It was Garcia’s 14th consecutive appearance at her home Grand Slam tournament.

In other first round matches, Katie Boulter beat  Carole Monnet 6-7, 6-1, 6-1, Daria Kasatkina beat Katerina Siniakova 6-1, 3-6, 6-2, Ajla Tomljanovic beat Maya Joint 6-1, 6-3, Danielle Collins beat Jodie Anna Burrage 7-6, 6-4, Jaqueline Cristian beat Kimberly Birrell 6-1, 6-0, Robin Montgomery beat Diane Parry 6-2, 6-1, Liudmila Samsonova beat Mayar Sherif 7-6, 6-2.

In men’s section, 10th seed Holger Rune beat Roberto Bautista Agut 6-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, Jacob Fearnley beat Stan Wawrinka 7-6, 6-3, 6-2, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Pablo Llamas Ruiz 6-3, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Tomás Martín Etcheverry 7-5, 6-3, 6-4, Karen Khachanov beat Aleksandar Vukic 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, Jiri Lehecka beat Jordan Thompson 6-4, 6-2, 6-1, Gabriel Diallo beat Francisco Cerundolo 7-5, 6-3, 6-4, Sebastian Ofner beat Jan-Lennard Struff 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 6-2, Denis Shapovalov beat Pedro Martínez 6-2, 6-0, 6-3, Richard Gasquet beat Terence Atmane 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, Ben Shelton beat Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the second round. Agencies

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