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Roland Garros 2017

5 things we learned on Day 1: Liberté, égalité, sécurité

After just one day of play at Roland Garros, there's already been a number of suprising - and unsurprising - things that are worth a look. Here's five of them from Day 1.

REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
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1.Liberté, égalité, sécurité

This will be a leitmotiv, I suspect. The wave of terrorist attacks has increased the need for baggage checks. No one is exempt. Not even the perennially mild manner daily review. And as the queues build up, this leads to a plethora of grumbles and jibes from people clearly not used to such iniquities.

It’s fantastic pre-match entertainment. The cynic in the review wonders if it is all part of the upwardly mobile ticket prices. Still, if it keeps us all safe, the show can go on inside the perimeters as well.

2. Life lessons

Petra Kvitova took some time away from the circuit a couple of years ago because she had lost her mojo and was unsure whether she wanted to continue with the slog of the tennis circuit.

The two time Wimbledon champion did come back and won a few events as well as a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016. She was stabbed in her playing hand fighting off an attacker at her home last December and following surgery to the pierced fingers in her left hand was warned she may never play competitively again.

The 27-year-old is back on the circuit and convinced that tennis is what she wants to do. “When my team and I were thinking about playing in Paris, I said that if I do play, I really want to win my first match,” she said after beating Julia Boserup in the first round. “I just didn’t want to lose. Everybody says that, of course, but it was special for me today. It was two victories.”

3. Location, location, Location.

That’s what we’re told when buying a house. But clearly the venue matters to tennis players too. Marion Bartoli, who had been given the on-court interview duties on the first day, informed Ekatarina Makarova that she had created a bit of French Open history.

The startled Russian peered at Bartoli probably fearing implication in some lurid Kremlin match fixing scandal. But the former Wimbledon champion displayed her crowd pleasing skills by revealing that with Makarova’s straight sets dismissal Angelique Kerber, it was the first time that the number one seed had lost in the opening round of the tournament in its 100 million year history.

The crowd clapped and whooped but the wonder seemed lost on the 29-year old Russian who is ranked 40th in the world. “This is only my second appearance on centre court,” she beamed.

4. Kerber, Kerber Kerber, Kerber, Kerber chameleon

We can still visualise Boy George and the rest of the Culture Club chirping away in the video for their chart topping hit Karma Chamelone. It was number one in Britain for weeks on end. That was more than 30 years ago.

Angelique Kerber’s supposed to be ruling the roost for weeks on end having donned the mantle left by Serena Williams who has opted out of circuit domination to give birth to her first child.

Kerber, however, is doing a brilliant imitation of ordinariness. On her way to the US Open title last September, the German ended Serena’s 186 week reign as queen of the courts.

But since getting to the top, Kerber hasn’t won a Grand Slam – a bit like Andy Murray on the men’s tour. Kerber is also going to have to live with the infamy of becoming the first top seed to lose in the first round at Roland Garros.

But there is a sliver of comfort for the lady. In her 10 visits to Roland Garros since 2007, she’s lost in the first round on five occasions. That’s impressive consistency.

5. Thiem performance

The Austrian Dominic Thiem is among a clutch of male players deemed the next big thing. Expectations are high and the 23-year-old eased into the second round on day one with a straight sets victory over Bernard Tomic who was – a few years ago – anointed as a possible next big thing.

Sadly for the Australian, he’s been plagued by injuries and so hasn’t yet fulfilled his promise. Thiem is looking the part though. He beat Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals at the Italian
Open before being dismantled by world number two Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. Djokovic was in turn sliced up in the final by Alex Zverev who turned 20 last month

Is he the next big thing? Standing at 1 metre 97 centimetres, you tell him that he’s not.

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