French Open 2021: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic's Wins Highlight Tuesday's Results
First-round play at the 2021 French Open wrapped up on Tuesday, with top men's and women's contenders like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty all advancing.
Nadal is looking to win at Roland Garros for the fifth straight year. It would mark the second time in his career he's accomplished that feat. The 34-year-old previously did it from 2010-14. He got off to a strong start with a straight-set victory over Alexei Popyrin.
Djokovic had no problem disposing of Tennys Sandgren 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in a match that was completed in under two hours.
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Barty, the top seed on the women's bracket, was taken to three sets before putting away unranked American Bernarda Pera.
2021 French Open Results
Men's Draw
No. 1 Novak Djokovic def. Tennys Sandgren 6-2, 6-4, 6-2
No. 3 Rafael Nadal def. Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (3)
Jan-Lennard Struff def. No. 7 Andrey Rublev 6-3, 7-6 (6), 4-6, 3-6, 6-4
No. 9 Matteo Berrettini def. Taro Daniel 6-0, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
No. 10 Diego Schwartzman def. Yen-Hsun Lu 6-2, 6-2, 6-3
No. 14 Gael Monfils def. Albert Ramos-Vinolas 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-4
Andreas Seppi def. No. 20 Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 7-6 (8), 4-6, 6-4
No. 21 Alex De Minaur def. Stefano Travaglia 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (4)
No. 24 Aslan Karatsev def. Jenson Brooksby 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
Ricardas Berankis def. No. 29 Ugo Humbert 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
Women's Draw
No. 1 Ashleigh Barty def. Bernarda Pera 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
No. 5 Elina Svitolina def. Oceane Babel 6-2, 7-5
No. 9 Karolina Pliskova def. Donna Vekic 7-5, 6-4
No. 13 Jennifer Brady def. Anastasija Sevastova 6-3, 6-3
No. 17 Maria Sakkari def. Katarina Zavatska 6-4, 6-1
No. 18 Karolina Muchova def. Andrea Petkovic 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
No. 24 Coco Gauff def. Aleksandra Krunic 7-6 (11), 6-4
No. 25 Ons Jabeur def. Yulia Putintseva 7-5, 6-2
No. 30 Anett Kontaveit def. Viktorija Golubic 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-0
No. 32 Ekaterina Alexandrova def. Venus Williams 6-3, 6-1
Full results available at RolandGarros.com.
Recap
Djokovic's dominance was on full display against Sandgren. The men's top seed went 5-of-11 on break points and won 44 of 94 receiving points. He also saved all six break-point chances that Sandgren had.
Tuesday marks Djokovic's eight consecutive win in a Grand Slam tournament dating back to the Australian Open. He's advanced to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros in each of the past 11 years.
There's still a long ways for Djokovic to go before he gets to that point this year, but the early returns look very good.
The biggest upset of the day saw men's No. 7 seed Andrey Rublev eliminated in his first-round match by Jan-Lennard Struff.
Rublev dug himself into a huge hole early by dropping the first two sets, including a tiebreak in the second, before finally coming to life. The Russian was able to force a decisive fifth set before running out of gas.
Rublev had similar struggles in the first round at the French Open last year. He dropped the first two sets against Sam Querrey, but was able to rebound by winning three straight sets. The 23-year-old rode that momentum to the quarterfinal, tying his best finish at a Grand Slam tournament.
Struff dominated Rublev on serve with a 25-13 advantage in aces. The Belgian also won 30 net points, compared to just 10 for Rublev.
Nadal wasn't bitten by the upset like Rublev, but he did get perhaps more than he bargained for in the opening round. The 13-time French Open champion had to rally from 2-5 in the third set to send Popyrin home.
Looking ahead to the second round, Nadal will take on Richard Gasquet. The Spaniard is 16-0 in his career against Gasquet, including 2-0 at Roland Garros.
"With this serve, with these kinds of shots from the baseline, [Popyrin has] everything to become a top player," Nadal told reporters after the match. "If he wants to do it, of course he is going to have his chances, because he has a lot of very difficult things in his game. He has everything to become a great...no, a fantastic player."
After an eventful Monday on the women's side of the draw, including four top-20 seeds losing, things did normalize today with no major upsets.
Barty didn't play her best match with just 18 winners and five aces, but she was able to take advantage of 49 unforced errors from Pera. The Australian said after her win that she's dealing with an injured left hip.
"Not going to hide behind the fact I'm not quite 100 percent, but I can guarantee that I will go out there with the right attitude every day and be accepting of that and give it a crack no matter what. It's going to be tough now without a doubt," Barty said.
In perhaps the best set of the day, Coco Gauff got past Aleksandra Krunic in a tiebreak that required 24 points to decide the first set. The 17-year-old American settled in at that point to win the second set and the match 6-4.
This is Gauff's third appearance at the French Open. She hasn't advanced past the second round in the past two years, but the No. 24 seed will have an opportunity to do so against Qiang Wang on Thursday.
There was one notable loss from the field, though it didn't happen in a match. Petra Kvitova, who defeated Greet Minnen on Sunday, announced she was withdrawing from the French Open because of an ankle injury suffered during her media availability.
Elina Svitolina needed just 76 minutes to put away Oceane Babel 6-2, 7-5. The Ukraine native didn't have an ace but took advantage of 36-17 edge in receiving points won.
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