Zhang Shuai lost her eighth match in a row 61 61 to Magdalena Frech of Poland and suffered a semi-meltdown at the press conference as she couldn’t stop the tears lamenting problems with Chinese tennis federation among other griefs. 34 year old Zhang was seeded 29.
Ugo Humbert won his first match ever at Roland Garros in five tries by dominating Adrian Mannarino in three sets on Chatrier. Next for Humbert will be Lorenzo Sonego who he had four match points against in Monte Carlo but failed to finish the job.
Sebastian Korda won his first match since the Australian Open, besting Mackenzie McDonald in three tough sets. Korda claims he didn’t touch a racquet for about three months due to the wrist problem though he did manage to add about seven kilos of muscle with new trainer Jez Green. Not sure how anyone could pump iron and gain muscle mass with a bad wrist but we’ll take Korda at his word.
Two Americans with vastly different backgrounds also clashed in the women’s draw. The Buffalo billionaire’s daughter Jess Pegula went toe to toe vs the Florida landscaper’s daughter Danielle Collins and the no. 3 seed prevailed 64 62 for the fifth time in five matches vs Collins. It was an especially damaging loss for Danielle Collins, the 2022 Australian Open finalist who will see her ranking of 46 take another major tumble.
1981 French Open champion Hana Mandlikova’s daughter Elle Mandlik quaified and will play her first French Open main draw match vs Simona Waltert. The 22 year old is ranked 118 and coached by Bolivian Sebastian Equez for about three years. Hana Mandlikova is back home in Florida.
A plethora of five setters today including Karen Khachanov topping Constant Lestienne, Hubert Hurkacz escaping David Goffin, Nuno Borgues beating John Isner, Tallon Griekspoor defeating Pedro Martinez, Jason Kubler surviving LL Facundo Diaz Acosta,
Elle Mandlik · French Open · Jessica Pegula · Roland Garros · Sebastian Korda · Ugo Humbert · Zhang Shuai
Scoop Malinowski · May 29, 2023 at 7:31 am
Kayla Day beat Kiki Mladenovic 75 61 and it was her first Grand Slam match win since 2016 US Open. She played US Open and AO in 2017 but lost 1R, she was six years out of playing any Grand Slam matches struggling with her career and ranking but the hard work paid off today by beating wildcard Kiki.
Scoop Malinowski · May 29, 2023 at 7:32 am
RG poster artwork is by Maxime Verdier.
catherine · May 29, 2023 at 9:22 am
I had 3 RG posters on my wall and this was one of them. I still have ’89. Never went there – press pass was a nice bribery gift for our modest payments.
I thought RG posters were the best of any at that time.
catherine · May 29, 2023 at 12:25 pm
I left a comment re a previous picture you had reproduced here but now it’s been changed my note doesn’t make sense.
RG’s posters in the 80s were real works of art and the style now is very different, although the artist seems the same.
Scoop Malinowski · May 29, 2023 at 6:56 pm
Catherine, yes I changed it to the new poster but I just added the 1984 poster at bottom of article. Both neat posters, prefer 84, that’s some of the best tennis art I ever saw. Every US Open poster looks about the same. French Open definitely much better posters but they had some bad ones too over the years.
Sam · May 30, 2023 at 1:06 am
Oh, Scoop, a couple of weeks ago, you mentioned the Andrej Martin incident. Apparently it did get picked up by the media. His initial ban of four years got reduced to only fourteen months after they bought his excuse. Here’s one such story:
https://www.essentiallysports.com/atp-wta-tennis-news-after-simona-halep-slovakian-andrej-martin-handed-a-fourteen-month-ban-after-violating-doping-rules/