Roger Federer kicked off only his second French Open campaign in six years with an impressive dismissal of Denis Istomin yesterday, while reigning women’s champion Iga Swiatek too reached round two.
The 39-year-old Federer, level with Rafael Nadal on 20 Grand Slam singles titles, saw off Uzbek Istomin 6-2, 6-4, 6-3.
“It’s a great pleasure to return. It was important to have some rehabilitation and lots of training,” said Federer, seeded eighth.
Poland’s Swiatek, celebrating her 20th birthday, saw off her good friend Kaja Juvan 6-0, 7-5 on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Men’s second seed Daniil Medvedev, who had lost in the first round in all of his four previous appearances in the tournament, put his poor clay-court form behind him by beating the dangerous Alexander Bublik 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.
Federer arrived at Roland Garros having played only three matches since his Australian Open semi-final loss to Novak Djokovic last year, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
The Swiss great lost to Pablo Andujar in his first clay-court outing of the season earlier this month in Geneva, but struck 48 winners as he raced to victory over Istomin.
He had been keen to play down any thoughts that he can add to his 2009 Roland Garros title in the run-up to the tournament, but was more positive after his win.
“For me coming back after many months or over a year of rehab, the light at the end of the tunnel or the measuring stick was always can I come back to a good level against good players,” said Federer.
“I hope Wimbledon is going to be that place. Maybe there’s going to be even something here in Paris. We’ll see.”
He is competing in the tournament for only the second time since 2015, and the first time since reaching the 2019 semi-finals, and will next face 2014 US Open winner Marin Cilic.
Swiatek, who became the first major singles champion from Poland last October, hit 22 winners in an impressive opening to her bid for a second straight Roland Garros triumph.
“I tried to put it behind me (being defending champion) and kind of use it in a positive way because I just know that I’m feeling good here,” said the eighth seed, who was presented with flowers on court after the match for her birthday.
Elsewhere yesterday, Bianca Andreescu became the highest women’s seed to fall at the French Open so far as she lost a three-hour marathon against Tamara Zidansek in the first round yesterday.
The 2019 US Open champion, seeded sixth, went down 6-7 (1), 7-6 (2), 9-7 to the Slovenian.
Canadian Andreescu, 20, served for the match at 5-4 in the deciding set but Zidansek broke back before missing a match point of her own in a gripping finale.
Andreescu found herself in trouble again serving at 7-8 and this time was unable to dig her way out of trouble with world number 85 Zidansek winning in three hours and 20 minutes.
While on paper it was a shock, Andreescu was playing at only her third Tour-level claycourt tournament and her lack of matches on the surface ultimately proved decisive.
Her build-up was hardly helped by having to pull out of the Madrid and Rome tournaments after testing positive for Covid-19.
“I think I prepared super, super well for this tournament. That’s why to me it’s very disappointing, because I thought I could go far,” Andreescu, who has struggled with injuries since winning the 2019 US Open, told reporters.
“I can just right now learn from it, because that’s what life’s all about. Hopefully the hard work that I did put in today and over the past couple of weeks will really show for the grass, for the hardcourt season.”
The women’s draw lost another big name when 2016 French Open semi-finalist Kiki Bertens fell at the first hurdle, losing 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 to another Slovenian, Polona Hercog.
Marketa Vondrousova, the 2019 runner-up who is seeded 20th this year, managed to avoid an early exit, battling back from a set down to beat Kaia Kanepi 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.
Johanna Konta, a semi-finalist in 2019, also crashed out as the 19th seed lost 7-6 (5), 6-2 to 54th-ranked Romanian Sorana Cirstea — ending British hopes in the women’s singles.
Fourth seed Sofia Kenin, last year’s losing finalist, did battle through, though, edging out 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.