Aussie\u2019s triumph after \u2018shark bite, new arm\u2019 as Demon prevails<\/a><\/p>\nPoland’s Iga Swiatek plays a backhand return to Australia’s Emerson Jones during their women’s singles match on day 2 of the French Open.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
Rybakina, who won the Australian Open earlier this year, plays Ukraine\u2019s Yuliia Starodubtseva next.<\/p>\n
Elina Svitolina survived a scare against Hungary\u2019s Anna Bondar on Court Suzanne Lenglen, fighting back from 3-1 down in a deciding set to win 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10\/3).<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian, who ended an eight-year wait for a fifth WTA 1000 title in Rome earlier this month, has still never lost in the French Open first round in 13 appearances.<\/p>\n
Former runner-up Jasmine Paolini was a 7-5, 6-3 winner over Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s Zheng Qinwen, who won Olympic gold at Roland Garros two years ago, crashed out in the first round for the first time with a 6-4, 6-0 loss to Poland\u2019s Maja Chwalinska.<\/p>\n
Sixth seed Amanda Anisimova, last year\u2019s Wimbledon and US Open runner-up, beat French wildcard Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah 6-3, 6-1.<\/p>\n
Tomljanovic crashes out for French Open | 01:40<\/p>\n
– Wawrinka, Monfils bow out –<\/p>\n
Former champion Wawrinka\u2019s final Roland Garros ended in disappointment as the 41-year-old was beaten 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 by Dutch lucky loser Jesper de Jong.<\/p>\n
Wawrinka, who beat Novak Djokovic in the 2015 final, is retiring at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
He enjoyed a fairytale run to the third round of his last Australian Open but could not repeat the feat in the Paris heat, despite being backed by a packed crowd on Court Simonne Mathieu.<\/p>\n
After the match, Wawrinka was presented with a glass case containing a section of a clay court and two video tributes to his career were displayed on big screens around the stadium — the latter featuring messages from former champions Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to all your support, I wanted to go on as long as possible, to 41 years of age, to continue living moments like this,\u201d Wawrinka said.<\/p>\n
Home favourite Gael Monfils\u2019s farewell also ended at the first hurdle despite a rousing comeback from two sets down by the 39-year-old in the night session.<\/p>\n
The former semi-finalist, who is also hanging up his racquet at the end of the year, slipped to a dramatic 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0 defeat by fellow French wildcard Hugo Gaston.<\/p>\n
The high temperatures took their toll on two-time runner-up Casper Ruud and Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin, as the Norwegian narrowly avoided a first opening-round defeat at Roland Garros, winning 6-2, 7-6 (7\/5), 5-7, 0-6, 6-2.<\/p>\n
Both players had medical time-outs in the fourth set and they took over 16 minutes to return to court ahead of the fifth, as the rallies slowed to walking pace.<\/p>\n
Ruud found just enough energy as the decider went on, though, with Safiullin continuing to wilt in the evening sunshine.<\/p>\n
Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar enjoyed a winning French Open debut with a 6-1, 6-0, 6-4 dismantling of American Aleksandar Kovacevic.<\/p>\n
Jodar has quickly climbed the rankings this year, winning a clay-court title in Marrakesh, reaching the Barcelona Open semi-finals and then the quarter-finals in both Madrid and Rome.<\/p>\n
Fifth seed Ben Shelton, who has made at least the quarter-finals at each of the other three Slams, saw off Daniel Merida in straight sets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek and second seed Elena Rybakina both eased into the second round with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[458,459,453,2498,2501,2507,419,2510,2352,422,2499,2505,2153,834,545,405,2503,114,2509,744,2500,115,860,207,429,2497,2506,259,2502,435,450,2496,432,752,139,444,254,907,451,1091,120,118,220,414,2504,2508,2512,434,456,2511,1326,2513,423],"class_list":["post-4670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-french-open","tag-asia","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-teenager","tag-backhand-return","tag-beat-french-wildcard","tag-ben-shelton","tag-bid-farewell","tag-china","tag-clay-court","tag-clay-court-title","tag-comfortable-wins","tag-daniel-merida","tag-eastern-asia","tag-eastern-europe","tag-emerson-jones","tag-emotional-tributes","tag-europe","tag-evening-sunshine","tag-fairytale-run","tag-four-hour-epic","tag-france","tag-francisco-roig","tag-french-open","tag-french-wildcard","tag-glass-case","tag-home-favourite","tag-hugo-gaston","tag-hungary","tag-italy","tag-james-duckworth","tag-job-donetennis","tag-madrid","tag-night-session","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-oceania","tag-paris","tag-poland","tag-province-of-madrid","tag-rafael-jodar","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-roger-federer","tag-roland-garros","tag-rome","tag-rousing-comeback","tag-russian-qualifier","tag-shark-bite","tag-southern-europe","tag-spain","tag-spanish-teenager","tag-stan-wawrinka","tag-video-tributes","tag-western-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n