Monday, May 31, 2021
Koepfer continues at the French Open
Tennis women are threatened with historical dreariness
On the second day of the French Open, from a German point of view, there is mostly frustration. Especially the clear end of Laura Siegemund is disappointing. The German women are threatened with complete sadness. In the men’s category, at least one Alexander Zverev followed in the second round.
The German tennis women are threatened with the worst performance in over 60 years at the French Open. One day after Angelique Kerber left Laura Siegemund in Paris. The 33-year-old Fed Cup player had to admit defeat to French Caroline Garcia 3: 6, 1: 6. From a German point of view, this means that only Andrea Petkovic is part of the women’s group. The 33-year-old from Darmstadt faces the difficult first-round task against number 18 Czech Karolina Muchova on Tuesday. If Petkovic should also fail, there would be no German player in the second round at the Stade Roland Garros for the first time since 1958.
Siegemund was completely without a chance on the Suzanne Lenglen court. Only in the first movement could the Swabian make the game reasonably open. But after a quick break in the second half, Garcia was unstoppable. Siegemund didn’t seem really fit like in the past few weeks, the German number two has been struggling with knee problems for a long time. After only 67 minutes, the game was over again.
“It wasn’t a good performance for me,” admitted Siegemund. “My goal was to be able to play here, I managed that. But that was all. It’s not enough just to be on the pitch, you have to be able to move,” she said. “Unfortunately that was not the case. I still have an irritation in my knee,” said Siegemund, who was in the quarter-finals last year.
For men, two out of three fail
In the men’s category, Dominik Koepfer followed Alexander Zverev, who was victorious on Sunday, into the second round. The 27-year-old prevailed against French Mathias Bourgue 6: 3, 6: 3, 6: 4 and was the second German to advance. Koepfer needed 2:04 hours for his success against the local hero. The Black Forest man is now up against the number 30 seeded American Taylor Fritz.
Eliminated, however, are qualifier Maximilian Marterer and lucky loser Peter Gojowczyk. Marterer lost to the Serb Filip Krajinovic 4: 6, 1: 6, 6: 7 (3: 7), Gojowczyk lost to the Italian Gianluca Mager with 2: 6, 6: 3, 4: 6, 5: 7. The 31-year-old from Dachau only slipped into the main field at very short notice. Because the Australian John Millman had to cancel at the last minute due to an injury, Gojowczyk moved up and had to take the field immediately. Despite a decent performance, it wasn’t enough for a surprise.
The favorites showed no nakedness on the second day of the French Open. Roger Federer in particular made an impressive return to Paris. 487 days after his last match at the Stade Roland Garros, the 39-year-old Swiss won against the Uzbek Denis Istomin 6: 2, 6: 4, 6: 3. For Federer, who had missed almost the entire year 2020 because of two knee operations, it was only the second win in the fourth game of this season. “It was fun to play here again,” said Federer, who was celebrated by the few spectators with “Roger, Roger” chants. He is now facing Marin Cilic from Croatia.
In the women’s category, the Polish defending champion Iga Swiatek made it into the second round. On her 20th birthday, last year’s surprise winner beat Kaja Juvan from Slovenia 6-0, 7-5. Afterwards, Swiatek was serenaded by the audience and a bouquet of flowers on Center Court. In the men’s category, Daniil Medvedev, seeded number two, made it into the second round. The Russian defeated Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan 6: 3, 6: 3, 7: 5.
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