#RG17 wrap day one: Kerber crashes, Thiem cruises

A hot, sticky Sunday start at Roland Garros may have pulled in the crowds, but it did little to lighten the mood of world No.1 Angelique Kerber, who suffered a brutal exit on the opening day of the French Open.

Kerber crashes out

Angelique Kerber’s ignominious clay court season has come to a crashing conclusion with a 6-2 6-2 defeat to Ekaterina Makarova. Kerber, who is the first top-seeded woman in the Open era to lose in the opening round, was beaten in little over an hour on the opening day of the tournament.

After a number of big hitting exchanges in the opening few games, Makarova was able to break away and claim the set. Kerber briefly rallied while trailing 0-3 in the second, but the result was never really in doubt.

“Right now I think that I have to find myself again and just try to forget the clay court season as soon as possible and then reset and start from the grass courts again,“ Kerber mused.

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Earlier in the day Petra Kvitova had provided one of the more heart-warming stories of the tournament, making a return from injuries sustained during an attack on her home with victory over Julia Boserup in the opening round. Kvitova, who was always in control of the match, eased to a comfortable 6-3 6-2 win.

Elsewhere, eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was a 7-5 6-4 winner over Christina McHale; Venus Williams, playing in her twentieth Roland Garros, was a 6-4 7-6(3) winner over China’s Qiang Wang; and Olympic champion Monica Puig won a back-and-forth encounter with Roberta Vinci 6-3 3-6 6-2.

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Thiem off to a flier

If there was a lingering hangover from his brutal defeat by Novak Djokovic in the Rome semifinals, Dominic Thiem didn’t show it. The Austrian, touted as a dark horse for the title, was in imperious form on the opening day of action, dismissing Bernard Tomic 6-4 6-0 6-2 in just 80 minutes.

Despite the emphatic victory, Thiem professed to being nervous about starting his Roland Garros campaign: “This tournament is the biggest highlight of the year for me, the Slam on clay. I was a little bit tight. Of course if I play my aggressive game style, I guess it’s tough to be in the rally with me.”

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Home fans were treated to epic five set encounter between two of their favourites, Lucas Pouille and Julien Benneteau. Sixteenth seed Pouille, who has never made it beyond the second round of his ‘home’ tournament, eventually took the win 7-6(8) 3-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 in three hours 20 minutes.

Elsewhere, Grigor Dimitrov dismissed Stephane Robert 6-2 6-3 6-4; Albert Ramos-Vinolas recovered from a set down to beat Marius Copil 6-7(9) 6-1 6-4 6-2; and Tommy Robredo found a way past Dan Evans, winning 5-7 6-4 6-3 6-1.