French Open: Bianca Andreescu knocks out Victoria Azarenka, Gael Monfils survives first-round scare

2-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka failed to advance to the second round of the French Open 2023 women’s singles after losing to 2019 US Open winner Bianca Andreescu.

In the first-round match on Tuesday, May 30. Andreescu won the match 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 at Court Simmone-Mathieu in two hours and 20 minutes.

No.18 seed Azarenka, who made her way through to the Australian Open quarters earlier this year, dominated midway through the second set with the score-line reading 6-2, 3-1 in her favour. But Azarenka made a stupendous comeback, saving 12 out of 16 breaks to come up trumps.

Andreescu made 24 unforced errors, but made up for the same with 47 winners. The Canadian came into the tournament at Roland Garros after losing three matches in a row. After her injury retirement against Ekaterina Alexandrova in the Miami Open, she faced first round exits in Madrid and Rome, losing to Wang Xiyu and Marketa Vondrousova.

Andreescu, who is also a former World No.4, is next set to face USA’s Emma Navarro in the second round on Thursday, June 1.

Gael Monfils holds his nerves
In the men’s singles, hometown boy Gael Monfils survived a massive scare in the first round after beating Argentina’s Sebastian Baez 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 at Phillipe-Chatrier. Both players broke each other’s serve nine times. Monfils looked tentative on the second serve as he won only 39 percent of points from them and also made seven double faults.

But the 36-year-old pulled off six aces and turned out to be a crucial factor in the game. Monfils, who became a father with Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina last year, will next lock horns with Holger Rune, who will be brimming with confidence, having first beaten Novak Djokovic, Casper Ruud and Daniil Medevev in the Italian Open and then defeating USA’s Christopher Eubanks 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 in the first round at Roland Garros.