2020 Roland Garros
Paris premieres: The best pictures from the Roland Garros first round
Wins for Simona Halep and Serena Williams, upsets from Coco Gauff and Kaja Juvan, eyecatching debuts by Clara Tauson and Mayar Sherif - all the best pictures from the first round of Roland Garros 2020.
01
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19-year-old Russian qualifier Kamilla Rakhimova was the first winner of Roland Garros 2020, picking up her first Top 100 win in her maiden Grand Slam main draw with a 6-2, 6-3 upset of US Open quarterfinalist Shelby Rogers.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
02
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Margarita Gasparyan swaddles herself in layers ahead of her first-round clash with Elise Mertens, which began in cold, wet and windy conditions.
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03
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When the pair got on court, Mertens was the victor, recovering after an early break in each set to defeat Gasparyan 6-2, 6-3.
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A layered-up Victoria Azarenka was another early winner, with the US Open finalist minimising her time in the autumn weather by dropping just three games to Danka Kovinic.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
05
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A seesaw deciding set saw lucky loser Astra Sharma go up 4-1 but come within two points of defeat four times down 4-5 as Anna Blinkova served for the match - before the Australian rallied to win 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.
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06
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Sara Sorribes Tormo, fresh off winning the Cagnes-sur-Mer ITF W80 title two weeks ago, threatened a major upset as she took a 4-2 lead over top seed Simona Halep.
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2018 Roland Garros champion Halep rebounded in style, though, sweeping the last 10 games to defeat Sorribes Tormo 6-4, 6-0 and extend her winning streak to 15 matches stretching back to her Dubai title in February.
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08
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2002 finalist Venus Williams battled hard for over two hours against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova - a rematch of the 2014 second-round clash between the pair.
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09
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Schmiedlova reprised her 2014 defeat of Venus to win 6-4, 6-4, snapping a 12-match Grand Slam main draw losing streak dating back to the 2015 US Open and extending her head-to-head over the former World No.1 lead to 3-1.
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10
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Two-time quarterfinalist Kaia Kanepi came from a set down to post a first-round win over Marie Bouzkova 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
11
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Caroline Garcia, the only Frenchwoman in action on Day 1, thrilled the reduced Philippe Chatrier crowd with a pulsating three-set upset of No.17 seed Anett Kontaveit.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
12
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Strasbourg quarterfinalist Jil Teichmann went for the tweener during her three-set tussle with Irina-Camelia Begu.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
13
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Tweener notwithstanding, though, it was Begu who won the longest match of the first day 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 over Teichmann to set up an all-Romanian second-round tie with Simona Halep.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
14
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16-year-old Coco Gauff pulled off the biggest upset of Day 1, notching up her second victory over a Top 20 player on the Grand Slam stage with a 6-3, 6-3 win over No.9 seed and last year's semifinalist Johanna Konta.
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15
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Wildcard Eugenie Bouchard posted her first Roland Garros victory since 2017 over Anna Kalinskaya, the Istanbul runner-up coming from a break down in both sets to win 6-4, 6-4.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
16
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Playing just her second tournament since last year's US Open, Daria Gavrilova's comeback from a foot injury continued apace with a 6-4, 6-3 upset of No.24 seed Dayana Yastremska - the Australian's first Tour-level victory since July 2019.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
17
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Day 2 began under the Philippe Chatrier roof, with Oceane Dodin seeking her third career Top 20 win - and first at a Grand Slam - against No.7 seed Petra Kvitova.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
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Kvitova, a Roland Garros semifinalist in 2012, came through a hair-raising, hard-hitting encounter against Dodin in straight sets, dropping serve only once.
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19
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2012 finalist Sara Errani had navigated qualifying without dropping a set, and in the first round overturned a 0-4 head-to-head to dismiss Monica Puig 6-2, 6-1 in just 53 minutes.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
20
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20-year-old Roland Garros debutante Katarina Zavatska threatened an upset, taking the first set over Kiki Bertens - but suffered a run of bad luck after breaking three strings within 10 minutes at the start of the third set and running out of racquets.
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21
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Sporting an appropriately clay-coloured outfit, fifth seed Bertens bounced back to defeat Zavatska 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 - the former semifinalist's first victory of the Tour resumption.
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22
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Awarded a wildcard after her stunning US Open comeback run, Tsvetana Pironkova picked up where she had left off in New York with an efficient 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Andrea Petkovic, who was herself playing her first match in nearly a year.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
23
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Facing Serena Williams in the first round for the second major in a row, Kristie Ahn again pushed the three-time Roland Garros champion hard in the first set, which the World No.102 served for at 5-4.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
24
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As at the US Open, Serena successfully battled to eke out the first set over Ahn before pulling away for a 7-6(2), 6-0 win - setting up another New York reprise against Pironkova, whom she defeated in three sets in the US Open quarterfinals.
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25
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Bernarda Pera won an intriguing all-American first-round derby over Catherine Bellis in straight sets.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
26
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Both chilled out and wrapped up against the chill, third seed Elina Svitolina overcame a tough challenge from Varvara Gracheva, eking out the first set on a tiebreak and coming from a break down to take the second.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
27
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Iga Swiatek delivered one of the finest performances of the first round, striking 23 winners in 15 games to rout last year's finalist Marketa Vondrousova in 63 minutes - the 19-year-old's fourth Top 20 win, and third at a Grand Slam.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
28
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Austria's Barbara Haas had survived some wild rides in qualifying, and in her Roland Garros main draw debut faced another tricky test in doubles World No.1 Hsieh Su-Wei.
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29
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Hsieh, who has lost just one doubles match all year, came from a break down in the second set to edge out Haas and post her first main draw singles victory of 2020.
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30
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Zhang Shuai's on-paper upset of No.12 seed Madison Keys was her fourth win in six meetings with the American; Zhang's 18th career Top 20 victory means that she has now scored at least one at each major.
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31
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The second evening was highlighted by young Slovenians taking it to multiple Grand Slam champions, with 22-year-old Tamara Zidansek bidding for her second career Top 20 win against No.11 seed Garbiñe Muguruza.
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32
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2016 champion Muguruza was forced to battle for over three hours to survive Zidansek's dropshots and claycourt craft 7-5, 4-6, 8-6 - the longest match of the tournament so far.
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Muguruza shared a hug with coach Conchita Martínez afterwards, and wrote on social media: "This kind of matches... they toughen you up, no?"
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Zidansek's 19-year-old compatriot Kaja Juvan was able to pull off the upset, though, dispatching No.18 seed Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-3 for her second Top 30 win of the year and first Roland Garros main draw victory.
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Alizé Cornet closed out the Philippe Chatrier schedule under the lights with a straight-sets triumph in an all-French derby against wildcard Chloe Paquet.
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36
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Day 3 began with the threat of a seismic upset as qualifier Mayar Sherif, the first Egyptian woman to compete in a Grand Slam main draw, saved eight set points to take the first-set tiebreak over second seed Karolina Pliskova.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
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2017 semifinalist Pliskova would eventually pull off a 6-7(9), 6-2, 6-4 comeback over Sherif, but the trailblazing debutante had made a serious impression on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
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US Open semifinalist Jennifer Brady, seeded at Roland Garros for the first time, also faced a dangerous debutante - 17-year-old qualifier Clara Tauson, the 2019 Australian Open girls' champion.
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Former junior World No.1 Tauson withstood and exceeded Brady's heavy hitting and then displayed nerves of steel in a thrilling overtime climax, saving two match points before sealing her fifth for a career-best 6-4, 3-6, 9-7 victory.
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40
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Another teenage former junior Slam champion, Marta Kostyuk, had also qualified for her first Roland Garros main draw, but faced a tricky first-round task in the in-form Nao Hibino.
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41
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Strasbourg semifinalist Hibino kept her nose in front to take a tight opening set over Kostyuk then raced away in the second, winning 20 of the last 24 points for a 6-4, 6-0 victory.
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42
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Received wisdom has it that this year's slow courts in damp conditions are harder to hit through - but they were no barrier to 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko striking 46 winners in 15 games to rout Madison Brengle 6-2, 6-1.
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43
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2015 quarterfinalist Alison Van Uytvanck came from a set down to defeat Rebecca Peterson 2-6, 6-3, 6-1, the Belgian's second win since the Tour's resumption.
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44
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Initially outsliced by Monica Niculescu, 2018 Australian Open semifinalist Danielle Collins adjusted to turn the match around for a three-set win over the idiosyncratic qualifier.
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45
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Playing for the first time since her US Open loss to Varvara Gracheva from 6-1, 5-1 up, 2017 quarterfinalist Kristina Mladenovic advanced to a 5-1 lead over Laura Siegemund on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
46
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Siegemund, however, managed to save seven set points in a trademark gritty comeback, eventually sealing a 7-5, 6-3 win over Mladenovic - reprising the result of the 2017 Stuttgart final.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
47
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Qualifier Irina Bara, playing her first Grand Slam main draw, posted a career-best victory in the first round, out-manoeuvring No.26 seed Donna Vekic 6-3, 6-4.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
48
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Liudmila Samsonova, who scored her first two Top 50 wins in Brisbane this year, took on the highest-ranked opponent she has yet faced in the form of fourth seed Sofia Kenin.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
49
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Australian Open champion Kenin, playing for the first time since being double bagelled by Victoria Azarenka in Rome a fortnight ago, was given a tough workout by the powerful Samsonova, but was able to progress 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
50
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Fiona Ferro, playing for the first time since winning the Palermo title in the Tour's first week back post-shutdown, made it four Frenchwomen in the second round out of 11 in the main draw with a straight-sets win over Heather Watson.
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51
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Julia Goerges would squander a 4-0 lead and two match points in the second set, but recovered to dominate the decider for a 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-1 defeat of No.19 seed Alison Riske - the German's first post-resumption win.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
52
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2018 runner-up Sloane Stephens captured her first win on clay of the year with a straight-sets defeat of Vitalia Diatchenko.
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53
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Istanbul semifinalist Paula Badosa, who won the Roland Garros junior title in 2015, battled for two hours and two minutes to post a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win on her senior main draw debut over Kateryna Kozlova.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
54
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No.13 seed Petra Martic, who reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland Garros last year, squeezed through two narrowly-contested sets to quell Misaki Doi 7-6(2), 7-5.
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55
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Daria Kasatkina's participation in Roland Garros had been in question after suffering an ankle injury 11 days previously in Rome, but the 2018 quarterfinalist said she had recovered well after dropping just three games to wildcard Harmony Tan.
Photo by Jimmie48/WTA
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