No-fuss Demon exacts revenge to breeze into second round at Roland-Garros

Alex de Minaur has ended Australia’s run of outs at this year’s Roland-Garros, exacting revenge on an American teenager who thrashed him mere months ago.

After a five-hour rain delay, the world No.11 – who has never advanced beyond the second round in Paris in seven previous attempts – was in no mood to waste further time, putting on a claycourt clinic in a 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 demolition of Alex Michelsen on Court Simonne-Mathieu.

Alex de Minaur was in complete control as he dispatched American Alex Michelsen to win their first-round match at Roland-Garros.Credit: AP

Five Australians came and went on the first two days of the tournament, but de Minaur is a man on a mission this year and has a huge opportunity to break back inside the top 10 this fortnight.

Joining him in the second round was Thanasi Kokkinakis, who rallied from 2-0 down in the final set to win a four-and-a-half-hour epic over fellow Australian Alexei Popyrin, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.

Kokkinakis, who needs to match his third-round showing from last year to maintain a top-100 ranking, dropped consecutive service games to drop the fourth set and start the fifth, but Popyrin imploded with the finish line in sight. He sprayed a forehand to hand the break back, then committed back-to-back straightforward errors four games later to go 5-3 down.

An elated Kokkinakis roared after clinching match point and repeatedly pounded his chest as he booked a winnable second-round date with Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri.

“It’s definitely not easy playing a good mate and I thought Alexei played a hell of a match as well. He made me lift my level and I just had to stay with it,” shrugged Kokkinakis.

There wasn’t much he could say to a devastated Popyrin, who admitted afterwards after being in a position to win on several occasions that it had been “one of my hardest losses to take.”

Kokkinakis understood.

“When you lose like that, I don’t think you want to hear too much at the net. I just said ‘tough one, hell of a battle’ and he said ‘good luck’. It’s hard, I’m sure we’ll talk about at some point down the track.”

He said he had all but given up at some points in the match.

“The things that you go through your mind is insane. I accepted defeat at some point, I was like, ‘oh well I’m gonna lose this one’.

“I had three set points in the second set, and all of a sudden he’s got a set point and I’m like, ‘here we go two sets to love’, it’s looking unlikely now.

“And then I win the third and I’m like, ‘I’m on here’ but I lose a fourth and I go ‘well, here we go again’. I’m down a break in the fifth and you think ‘oh my god’ it’s gonna be a tough night. And then you’ve just got to try and keep the faith amid this internal dialogue that you’re battling with yourself.”

Adam Walton was unable to make a winning debut, losing 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 to Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, while Rinky Hijikata went down 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1 to Italy’s Luciano Darderi.

De Minaur, only 25 himself, looked every bit a savvy veteran in comparison to his combustible 19-year-old opponent, whose power game clearly remains a work in progress on the red dirt.

Michelsen blew past de Minaur for the loss of only five games in a boilover on Los Cabos’ hardcourts in February, but grew increasingly frustrated in their rematch at his inability to hit through Australia’s leading player.

Asked if it was his best performance at Roland-Garros, de Minaur said: “Well, there’s not too many to go from, so I’ll take it. Looking at the scores and everything, yeah, [it] probably is, but I don’t have too many to go from.

“I’m a completely different player than previous years on the surface. I feel comfortable, I feel capable. I’m going to do my very best because ultimately, my goals are to go deep at the slams, so I’m going to do my very best [to achieve] that.

“Saying that, I am quite conscious that I’m yet to pass the second round here, so we’ll start with that one first, then we can move forward.”

It took until the sixth game of the match for Michelsen to even register a game – but that was not a sign of things to come. De Minaur wrapped up the first set inside half an hour, then went about maintaining his momentum in the early stages of the second set.

Stationed metres behind the baseline to return Michelsen’s rocket serve, de Minaur also lengthened rallies at every opportunity and inevitably won most of them.

Thanasi Kokkinakis won an epic five-set battle with fellow Australian Alexei Popyrin.Credit: Getty Images

De Minaur won 32 of the 45 points when the rally lasted at least nine shots, and finished with 28 winners to Michelsen’s 13 while committing 15 fewer unforced errors in a sharp display.

Michelsen, who was visibly on edge throughout the contest, including repeatedly threatening to destroy his racquet, lost a seven-minute service game to open the second set that featured a series of extended baseline exchanges.

The American rising star was never going to win the match that way, but generally battled whenever he ventured to the net, too.

De Minaur ground his way to a 3-0 lead, then put the foot down to race to a two-sets-to-love advantage with some outstanding play, highlighted by a pair of perfectly struck drop shots that Michelsen could not chase down.

There was a surprise but only brief detour in set three.

Michelsen held serve to start the set before a lapse in concentration cost de Minaur, who double-faulted then dumped a backhand into the net to fall 2-0 behind. The Australian quickly snuffed out any thoughts of an unlikely comeback, breaking his frustrated rival back immediately.

Michelsen’s emotions finally came to the surface as he tossed his racquet in disgust while walking to his chair before angrily muttering towards his player box, and the crowd jeered him the next game when he swatted a ball away after another lost point.

He also took exception to a line call in the seventh game, but by then he was 4-2 down and on his way out. The one-way dialogue with the chair umpire continued at the next change of ends.

De Minaur remained a picture of calm throughout the fireworks at the other end as he breezed into the second round, where he will face Jaume Munar, who ousted fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

That match-up promises to be a much-tougher test of de Minaur’s staying power at Roland-Garros, but he will have the confidence of a 2-0 head-to-head with Munar, including one on clay.

Unwanted history made as Saville exits Roland-Garros

No Australian woman will feature in the second round at Roland-Garros for the first time in 27 years, with Daria Saville losing at the first hurdle in her return to the claycourt major.

Wildcard Ajla Tomljanovic – who departed on day one after being up a set on Australian Open semi-finalist Dayana Yastremska – and Saville were the country’s only representatives in the women’s main draw, while Olivia Gadecki and Astra Sharma lost in final-round qualifying.

World No.84 Saville overcame a second ACL rupture and troublesome Achilles issue to regain her top-100 place last month, but her trademark grit was not enough in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Italian 12th seed Jasmine Paolini.

Daria Saville fought hard but was unable to match Italian Jasmine Paolini in her first-round defeat at Roland-Garros.Credit: Getty Images

It was not the only disappointing result for Australia on the tournament’s second day, with Max Purcell twice unsuccessfully serving for the match and blowing six match points in a 6-2, 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (12-10) defeat to German qualifier Henri Squire.

All five Australians to play so far have failed to advance, with five more to come on Tuesday, led by No.11 seed Alex de Minaur, while an all-Aussie clash between Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alexei Popyrin guarantees there will not be a complete wipeout.

The draw did neither Tomljanovic nor Saville any favours, but this tournament is a low point in the post-Ash Barty era for Australian women’s tennis.

Barty, who retired shortly after winning the 2022 Australian Open title, captured the first of her three grand slams at the French Open five years ago. She was the first Australian woman to achieve that feat in 46 years.

Just like this year, Australia had only two women in the Roland-Garros main draw in 1997 – Rachel McQuillan and Annabel Ellwood, who is now coaching some of the nation’s most promising juniors – and they were unable to make it out of the first round.

Max Purcell had six match points in a five-set loss at Roland-Garros.Credit: Getty Images

Iva Majoli upset Martina Hingis to win that year’s title, with the likes of Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Mary Pierce, Jana Novotná and Conchita Martinez among the seeds, while a 17-year-old Amelie Mauresmo reached the second round.

Australia’s Billie Jean King Cup captain Sam Stosur finished runner-up at the claycourt slam in 2010 and made three other semi-finals, but now has a key role to play to nurture the next wave of talent.

There is great hope for Gadecki and teenagers Taylah Preston, Talia Gibson, Maya Joint and Emerson Jones, but a significant breakthrough from this group cannot come soon enough. Tomljanovic’s and Saville’s increasing injuries – and most recently Storm Hunter’s Achilles rupture – have laid bare the challenge facing Stosur, Nicole Pratt, Paul Kilderry and co. at Tennis Australia to accelerate development on the women’s side.

Saville is seven years separated from her career-high ranking of No.20, which came months after she advanced to the last 16 for the second straight time at the Australian Open. Those types of results are rare for her these days, with only one trip to the third round of a slam at her past 15 attempts.

There are not many times 166-centimetre Saville has a height advantage on tour, but she narrowly edged out Paolini in that department. However, Saville did not boast the same punch off her racquet.

The Italian, who enjoyed a career-best run to the fourth round at this year’s Australian Open, wreaked havoc with her forehand, in particular, and mostly dictated terms, although both players struggled to hold serve.

There were seven consecutive breaks until Paolini served out the first set, and Saville failed to hold in any of her first seven service games – but she finally did 80 minutes into the contest while trailing by a set and 5-1.

That came during a period Saville launched some rearguard action, including breaking Paolini in the next game, before rain arrived with the Australian veteran holding game point to cut her deficit to 4-5. Saville needed only one point to hold again once play finally resumed to buoy hopes of a fightback, only for Paolini to serve out the match without dropping a point.

Aussie wipeout at Roland-Garros

Ajla Tomljanovic has conceded she is not the player she was before the knee injury that ruined her 2023 season, as she comes to terms with letting slip a match-winning lead in her first-round defeat at Roland-Garros.

The 31-year-old needed a wildcard to make the main draw after a torrid run of setbacks across the past two years, but was left to rue a wasted opportunity after losing 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to Australian Open semi-finalist and No. 30 seed Dayana Yastremska.

Tomljanovic’s exit means Daria Saville is the last Australian hope in the women’s singles. Saville is due to play 12th-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini at 7pm AEST on Monday. The last time Australia did not have a player in the second round of the women’s draw at the claycourt major was in 1997.

It was an inauspicious start to the 2024 event for Australia, with Aleks Vukic and Jordan Thompson following Tomljanovic out of the tournament on day one.

Ajla Tomljanovic started strong, winning the first set over No.30 seed Dayana Yastremska.Credit:

Tomljanovic failed to convert three break points in a row in the fourth game of the second set before the match took a vicious turn. Yastremska not only escaped that situation but broke the Australian’s serve from 40-0 three games later to snatch control.

The Ukrainian ball-basher, who had never made the second round at the French Open in four previous attempts, offered one last chance for Tomljanovic to regain a foothold in the next game.

Yastremska’s serve was shaky for much of the contest, and she nervously delivered lets either side of a first-serve fault with Tomljanovic holding break-back point. But she boldly sent down a big second serve that did not come back over the net, on her way to a seven-game surge that swung the clash for good.

“I should not leave this place having any negative thoughts because it is only up from here, and my body so far has pulled up well, so that is a great thing,” Tomljanovic said.

“But it feels like I have a mountain to climb right now. I’m still here; I’m eager. I still have that fire inside me to keep going, but it definitely has been very challenging. It’s just I feel like I have to almost reprogram my mind and not think about the past because I’m not the player I was.

“I have to build everything up from the ground again, and that’s not easy to accept mentally because you come back straight away, and you’re like, ‘I want to get back [to] where I was’ – but that’s gone. A lot of time has passed, and I’m here now. It’s a process, for sure.”

Vukic went down 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to China’s world No.44 Zhizhen Zhang while dealing with an existing adductor issue, while hard-hitting German left-hander Maximilian Marterer demolished an out-of-sorts Thompson 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 in a rain-interrupted match.

Jordan Thompson bowed out of the French Open in straight sets.Credit: Getty Images

Vukic, who will have an MRI scan, said he expected to be fit for Wimbledon: “I’ve no doubt that I’ll be fine by then. It feels like it’s on the verge of being a bad one. There was a chance to make it worse [by playing], but we took the risk, and I don’t think it has got any worse, so I think it’s still all very manageable.”

Thompson, who has failed to advance from the first round for five straight years, won the first two games but only three of the last 21 as Marterer crushed 34 winners to the anguished Aussie’s 19.

Seven other Australians, led by 11th-seeded Alex de Minaur, are still to begin their Roland-Garros campaign. Thanasi Kokkinakis was the sole Australian to advance to the third round last year, and he plays countryman Alexei Popyrin in his 2024 opener on Tuesday.

Sydneysider Chris O’Connell withdrew from the tournament because of an injury, replaced by lucky loser Otto Virtanen, while Max Purcell joins Saville in playing on Monday against German qualifier Henri Squire.

Tomljanovic started well against Dayana Yastremska before losing in three sets.Credit: Getty Images

It was not the first time Yastremska reversed her fortunes mid-match against Tomljanovic, having rallied from 5-2 down in the final set to beat the Australian in the Thailand Open final five years ago.

The positives were Tomljanovic’s ball striking and movement were at a good level despite entering the Paris slam – which she reached the last 16 at in 2014 – with barely one match under her belt since undergoing uterine surgery in February.

The world No. 202 retired three games into her second match with a stiff neck before withdrawing from a lead-in tournament. The early exit will buy her more time to prepare for the grasscourt season, where she has enjoyed some of her best results.

Tomljanovic was poised to challenge for a top-20 ranking entering last year, and believed she was ready to be a major title contender after reaching two of her three grand slam quarter-finals in 2022, only for a serious knee setback to derail her momentum and kickstart a challenging period for her.

The knee injury lingered longer than expected and effectively wiped out her season last year, although she managed to score a first-round win at the US Open.

Tomljanovic used her special ranking of No.33 to enter this year’s Wimbledon draw, where she is a good chance to be seeded and made the last eight in 2021 and 2022.

Among the other players to progress were Naomi Osaka, Andrey Rublev, Grigor Dimitrov, Hubert Hurkacz and past champions Carlos Alcaraz and Jelena Ostapenko. However, 17th-seeded Frenchman Ugo Humbert bowed out 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 to Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego.

With AAP

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