Gasquet delays retirement with French Open first-round win
PARIS, May 26 (Reuters) - Crowd darling Richard Gasquet got to fight another day in his final French Open appearance as he dispatched fellow Frenchman Terence Atmane 6-2 2-6 6-3 6-0 in the first round on Monday.
Playing in a record 22nd French Open, Gasquet, who will retire after Roland Garros, got off to a great start before losing the plot, only to be put back into the driving seat when his opponent suffered from cramp.
Midway through the third set, Atmane screamed in pain at the change of ends but was not allowed a medical time out as per tournament regulations.
The rest of the match was a stroll for the three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist, who prevailed on his sixth match point.
He will next face either world number one Jannik Sinner of Italy, or compatriot Arthur Rinderknech.
"I was disrupted by injuries, it was not easy for me to be ready for the tournament but I'm here and I'll try to enjoy as long as I can," said Gasquet.
"I'll be playing another match on Thursday, that makes me happy," he added as the Philippe Chatrier crowd chanted his name.
In the women's draw, Caroline Garcia bid an emotional farewell to Roland Garros after a straight-sets defeat by American Bernarda Pera in the first round.
It was not the last match of her career, but tears rolled down the Frenchwoman's cheeks, who never went past the quarter-finals on the Parisian clay.
"I wasn't really expecting that to happen when I went into the corridor," Garcia, who cried before entering the court, told a press conference.
"I don't know if it was a good or a bad surprise. But I really wanted to live this moment intensely with all of the emotions I was going to have.
"I didn't know how things were going to roll out, but it was emotional in getting ready to go onto the court, and knowing that it was maybe my last match in Roland Garros. But in any case, I was happy that it was on that court, on Suzanne Lenglen, with a lot of fans."
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