Roland-Garros: hecatomb for the French, everything smiles on the favorites …

From the sad disappointment of Gaël Monfils to the terrible elimination of Corentin Moutet, who surrendered after more than six hours of play, the French were not at the party this Monday at Roland Garros. Only a handful of players, led by the young dad Pierre-Hugues Herbert, was able to pull out of the game to support the favorites in the second round.

Dark record for the Blues

Black day for the French at Roland Garros. The majority of them went by the wayside, starting with Gaël Monfils, who struggles to find continuity in his game since the resumption of competitions. Defeated (6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3) by the Kazakh Alexander Bublik, the French was quite unable to explain his current difficulties at a press conference. Corentin Moutet found him the right words to describe his feeling after a terribly frustrating defeat at the end of a Homeric fight of five innings (0-6, 7-6 [7], 7-6 [3], 2-6, 18-16) and 6:05 of play delivered against the Italian qualifier Lorenzo Giustino. “I feel drained,” he said after this defeat which will inevitably be very difficult to take. Adrian Mannarino and Arthur Rinderknech also lost, quite sharply, just like Diane Parry and Océane Dodin in the women.

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Moutet loses second longest match in history at Roland Garros

Two days and 6:05 of combat: the French Corentin Moutet and the Italian Lorenzo Giustino, 157th in the world, achieved the second longest match in the history of the Parisian tournament in the Open era, after the one between Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clément in 2004 and which lasted 6:33! The 29-year-old Neapolitan had never won a match on the main circuit, let alone in the Grand Slam. He played there his first meeting in five sets.

Slight breaks through the clouds

The very young father Pierre-Hugues Herbert is undefeated as a father. The Frenchman, who one would have thought that the weather conditions and the quality of the heavy balls would not favor his attacking game, ended up disgusting his opponent Michael Mmoh, thanks in particular to the quality of his returns. A very big match awaits him in the second round against the German Alexander Zverev, his next opponent. Winner of his first Grand Slam match, Hugo Gaston disposed of his compatriot Maxime Janvier. The level will rise very quickly against the Japanese Nishioka, surprise striker of the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime. Alizé Cornet spoke about his experience in the Majors to get rid of a compatriot, Chloé Paquet in this case.

Thiem and Nadal without forcing

Great favorite to his own succession despite his failure in Rome and the playing conditions that suit him little, the Spaniard Rafael Nadal, beaten only twice at Roland Garros in 96 confrontations, easily defeated the Belarusian Gerasimov. Somewhat diminished at the end, the latter did not have the means to fight against the ardor of the Manacor bull. Seed n ° 3, outgoing finalist Porte d’Auteuil, and especially recent winner of the Australian Open, the Austrian Dominic Thiem started his fortnight with a convincing success recorded against the Croatian Marin Cilic, never easy to maneuver. in Grand Slam.

It did not happen, however, for the Russian Daniil Medvedev, dominated in four sets (6-4, 7-6, 2-6, 6-1) by the Hungarian Martin Fucsovics, who offered himself at the same time the first Top 10 of his career by hooking the 5th player in the world to his hunting roster. After a sluggish start and a tie-break each to take the lead in their respective matches, Elina Svitolina and Serena Williams ended up winning in two sets, where Garbine Muguruza needed 3:01 of play to get rid of the Slovenian Tamara Zidansek on the Simonne-Mathieu.