Sinner thrashes retiring Gasquet at French Open, Zverev, Andreeva through
Italy's Jannik Sinner (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Paris, May 29, 2025 -Jannik Sinner ended the retiring Richard Gasquet's career with a one-sided victory at the
French Open
on Thursday, while
Novak Djokovic
looks to sharpen his game in the second round in his pursuit of a 25th Grand Slam title.
Women's second seed and former Roland Garros finalist Coco Gauff also targets a place in the last 32, after 18-year-old contender Mirra Andreeva cruised through.
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World number one Sinner had no trouble in seeing off the 38-year-old Gasquet, playing at the tournament for the 22nd and final time, 6-3, 6-0, 6-4 in under two hours.
Sinner made his comeback from a three-month doping ban at the Italian Open earlier in May, reaching the final before losing in straight sets to reigning Roland Garros champion Carlos Alcaraz.
'Jitesh Sharma was spectacular': Mayank Agarwal after RCB's win vs LSG
He was in fine form against Gasquet, saving three break points to serve out the first set before dominating the rest of the match on Court Philippe Chatrier.
"I'm very happy to be in the third round," Sinner told the crowd after setting up a third-round meeting with Czech Jiri Lehecka.
"Thank you for being very fair with me today, I know what was at stake... It's your (Gasquet's) moment. Congrats on an amazing career."
Djokovic, fresh off his 100th ATP title last weekend, got his tilt at a fourth French Open crown off to a solid start on Tuesday.
The Serbian sixth seed will need to be on his guard against crafty Frenchman Corentin Moutet.
"I don't know how many more Grand Slams I've got left in my body," Djokovic said after the opening round.
Third seed Alexander Zverev bounced back from losing the first set in a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 win over Dutchman Jesper de Jong.
Quiz:
Who's that IPL player?
The German, who lost last year's final to Alcaraz, will next face the winner of an all-Italian clash between Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Arnaldi on Saturday for a last-16 berth.
Australian ninth seed Alex de Minaur's run of reaching four consecutive Grand Slam quarter-finals was ended as he blew a two-set lead to lose 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 to Alexander Bublik.
Czech teenager Jakub Mensik, the Miami Open champion, also suffered a collapse from two sets up in a 2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 defeat by Grand Slam debutant Henrique Rocha of Portugal.
Home hope Arthur Fils narrowly avoided suffering a similar fate though.
The 14th seed fought back from a break down in the deciding set to grab a dramatic 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/4), 2-6, 0-6, 6-4 victory over Spaniard Juame Munar on a raucous Court Suzanne Lenglen.
IPL 2025: What went wrong for Lucknow Super Giants?
Later, Gael Monfils looks to pull off an upset over British fifth seed Jack Draper in the night session after fighting back from two sets down under the lights on Court Philippe Chatrier in his opener.
- Andreeva through -
Women's sixth seed Andreeva, who had an impressive run to the semi-finals at Roland Garros last year, saw off American Ashlyn Krueger 6-3, 6-4.
Andreeva is playing her first Grand Slam as a top-10 seed after capturing WTA 1000 series titles in Dubai and Indian Wells.
"I'm just happy that I stayed calm during the match, and I'm happy that I overcame some little difficulties throughout the match," said the teenager.
Third seed Jessica Pegula beat fellow American Ann Li 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) and will face former
Wimbledon
winner Marketa Vondrousova in the third round after the Czech's win over Magdalena Frech.
Reigning Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova was knocked out, though, dispatched 6-0, 6-3 by Russian Veronika Kudermetova.
Gauff laughed off an amusing lapse that led to her arriving on court without any racquets ahead of her first-round win earlier this week.
The American is targeting a first title since last year's WTA Finals, having come up just short in Madrid and Rome.
"I think as the rounds go, I think it's just with every tournament you feel more comfortable out there on the court," said Gauff, who plays Czech qualifier Tereza Valentova in her second match.
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They ended up finally at 31-29 in favour of Djokovic. By 2024, when Nadal played his last match at Roland Garros (at the Grand Slam, not the Olympics later)—though he didn't declare it then—his body had pretty much given up on him. From the beginning, Nadal's bruising style of play caused sufficient wear and tear on his body, leading to frequent injuries, long recovery periods and missed events. He suffered from Mueller-Weiss syndrome, a degenerative condition caused by a misshapen small bone in the top of the foot from an early age and never had surgery for it because it would have hampered his movements on court. Also Read Who will replace Rafael Nadal as the master of clay? He played a lot of his matches with painkiller injections and though there have been enough suspicions—given his quick recoveries and subsequent successes—Nadal has never been cited or sanctioned for failing a doping test. 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There were straight translations out of Spanish, Clarey writes, like, 'It's obvious that I started well the match" or 'Today have been a very good Test". The other quirks which amused tennis followers always were the on-court rituals, of placing the water bottles in front of his chair, the pre-serve ticks of tucking his hair behind his ears and tugging his shorts. Nadal says that in his personal life he is disorganised, but on court he needed to be organised because routines allowed him to stay totally focussed. 'He didn't win 14 Roland Garroses with his muscles. He won them with his head," says Wojtek Fibak, an informal adviser to the Nadals and a former player. Sprinkled with anecdotes, comments from players across generations, details of some of Nadal's greatest matches, Clarey covers a lot of ground. He keeps this distinctly different from The Master, making it more personal, with repeated references to his time at the NYT and his access to players. By force of will and reliability, Clarey writes, Nadal became a reference point, a way of measuring time for all those associated with Roland Garros. He takes the example of Marc Maury, the master of ceremonies at Roland Garros, whose voice would be familiar to television audiences. Maury would recite all the years, one by one in French, that Nadal won the title, 'Deux mille cinq, deux mille six, deux mille sept…" before the player stepped on to the court. 'His (Maury's) long and lilting enumeration became the best testimony to the absurdity of Nadal's achievement," writes Clarey about a player who has become so emblematic with this event that this year's ongoing tournament seems incomplete without him—barring that emotional cameo at the felicitation ceremony. Arun Janardhan is a Mumbai-based journalist who covers sports, business leaders and lifestyle. Also Read Reliving India's historic 1975 Hockey World Cup win
