Gaël Monfils and Arthur Rinderknech out, Luca Van Assche and Naomi Osaka qualified… What to remember from Wednesday’s matches

One month before the start of Roland-Garros, the women’s and men’s circuits are brought together in Madrid for ten days for the WTA 1000 and the Masters 1000.

The day after the first matches played in the only women’s main draw, the two tournaments reached cruising speed on Wednesday April 24. Of the six French entrants during the day, five were eliminated and only one validated his ticket for the 2nd round.

One month before the French Open, Gaël Monfils was not reassured, being eliminated sharply by the 60th in the world, the Italian Luciano Darderi 6-4, 6-2. Harmed by a faulty first ball (48% of successful first serves) and 21 unforced errors, the Frenchman gave up almost half of his throws to lose in just 1 hour 18 minutes. On clay, Gaël Monfils, ranked 40th in the ATP, has won only two matches this season in three tournaments.

Roland-Garros objective for Monfils

“I made a lot of mistakes, I had difficulty finding a good rhythm on the serve to pass more firsts [balles]reacted the Frenchman in the mixed zone. I’m progressing gradually, I’m repeating matches to be better physically (…) Madrid is not my goal, and I’ve never really played very well here.” At 37, Gaël Monfils wants to take advantage of this early exit to work physically in order to be better in a month in Paris: “I don’t have a thousand left of the Roland-Garros, so the goal is really to be able to savor.”

Another Frenchman, Arthur Rinderknech (77th), was also beaten in the first round 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, by Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko (59th), future opponent of double title holder Carlos Alcaraz. Corentin Moutet (88th in the ATP), out of the qualifying table, delivered a marathon to finally fall against the 19-year-old Chinese Juncheng Shang (111th in the world) 6-7 (9/11), 6-2, 7- 6 (12/10) on his sixth match point, after four hours of a bitter fight. Same outcome for Varvara Gracheva, 91st in the world after qualifying, eliminated by the Italian Lucia Bronzetti (46th) 6-3, 6-3, and for Clara Burel (44th) who was unable to hold her place against Olga Danilovic ( 122nd) losing after a 2h37 fight (3-6, 7-6, 6-4).

On the other hand, the good news is the qualification of Luca Van Assche. Opposed to the Belgian Zizou Bergs (103rd in the ATP), the 99th in the world was able to recover from the loss of the decisive game with a dry score (0/7) to win 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 after a 2h53 standoff. Despite an irregular serve, the winner of Roland-Garros junior in 2021 raised his level of play in important moments (10 break points saved out of 11 conceded). He will face clay court specialist Sebastian Baez (19th) in the second round.

Naomi Osaka returns to victory

On the positive side, the Japanese Naomi Osaka has reached a nice milestone. By dominating Belgian Greet Minnen 6-4, 6-1, the former world number 1 won her first match of the season on clay. It is also her first victory on earth since her defeat in the first round of Roland-Garros in 2022, after an entry elimination in Rouen last week against the Italian Martina Trevisan (6-4, 6-2).

Returning to the circuit after becoming a mother in 2023, the current 192nd in the world will challenge the No. 16 seed, the Russian Ludmila Samsonova, in the next round, whom she has already beaten this year in two rounds at the WTA 1000 in Indian Wells.