Emma Raducanu sets up clash with Iga Swiatek as Katie Boulter digs deep for first Roland Garros win
Men’s defending champion Carlos Alcaraz is also through to the second round
Emma Raducanu needed a lengthy medical time-out as she came through a three-set marathon to book a blockbuster second-round meeting with defending champion Iga Swiatek at the French Open.
The 22-year-old was leading China’s Wang Xinyu 6-5 in the first set when she called for the doctor, rubbing ice on her cheeks and round her eyes as she had her blood pressure checked.
There were fears that Raducanu, who has had a history of injury and illness issues throughout her career, would have to retire from the match.
But after three minutes of treatment she came back on to the court and confidently served out the set to love.
Wang rallied to take the second set but, in front of a big crowd on a cramped Court Eight, Raducanu hit back to complete a gutsy 7-5 4-6 6-3 victory in two hours and 44 minutes – the joint-longest match of her career on clay.
Prior to the match, Raducanu had admitted the back problem she suffered in Strasbourg last week was was still not 100 per cent right. The 2021 US champion has had to overcome a phobia of needles to undergo acupuncture in a bid to ease the issue. Raducanu’s movement did not appear to be hindered by the problem, but her energy levels did seem low.
At the start of the second, the British number two flagged again allowing Wang, who is ranked two places beneath her at 43 in the world, to move 5-1 ahead.
Raducanu dug deep to claw both breaks back, but 23-year-old Wang – a former doubles champion at Roland Garros – brought up set points on her opponent’s serve and took the second to level the match.
Raducanu disappeared off court briefly at the changeover and upon her return promptly grabbed a decisive break.
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She squandered two match points on her own serve but a Wang double-fault in the next game sealed a gruelling win.
“I was really just flat and struggling at the start but I’m happy to have got through,” she said, “I can take positives in the fact a lot of top players, in the first round, have struggled but got through and given themselves another opportunity. My heart and fight came through today and I’m very proud of that.”
Four-time champion Swiatek had earlier stretched her winning streak at the French Open to 22 matches, the Polish world number five beating Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova 6-3 6-3.
Meanwhile, Carlos Alcaraz got the defence of his French Open title up and running with a straight-sets win over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri. The 22-year-old won 6-3 6-4 6-2 in just under two hours.
“I think it was really, really solid,” he said. “The first round for every tournament is never easy and probably coming here as defending champion, it could be even tougher but I just started pretty well, I kept my good pace during the match, which is great.”
Katie Boulter earned her first victory at Roland Garros having come from a set down to defeat Carole Monnet 6-7 6-1 6-1. The Brit had to fight a dip in form and a hostile partisan crowd to get past her French opponent and reach the second round for the very first time a claimed it was a victory she ‘wouldn’t forget’.
“Sometimes I find it really difficult on this surface,” Boulter revealed, “I persevered and tried my hardest to bring some good tennis and obviously my first Roland Garros win, you never forget those ones. This one is going to be special for me. I’m really, really happy with today.”
In the evening session on Court Philippe Chatrier, Arthur Rinderknech put Jannik Sinner through his paces and almost forced the World No. 1 into a fourth set. Sinner showed how great he actually is by coming from 5-2 down in the third set to win 6-4 6-3 7-5 and advance into the next round.