Jannik Sinner stretched his Grand Slam winning streak to 15 matches by grabbing the last five games to complete a 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Arthur Rinderknech of France in the French Open’s first round. The No. 1-ranked Sinner is playing in his second tournament since serving a three-month doping ban that was announced shortly after he won the Australian Open in January. The result against the 75th-ranked Rinderknech in Court Philippe-Chatrier was Sinner's 62nd win in a row against opponents outside the top 20.
Naomi Osaka bows out
Once ranked No. 1 and currently No. 49, Naomi Osaka lost to 10th seed Paula Badosa 6-7 (1), 6-1, 6-4 in the first round of the French Open. “As time goes on, I feel like I should be doing better. But also — I kind of talked about this before, maybe a couple years ago, or maybe recently, I'm not sure — I hate disappointing people,” said Osaka, who owns four Grand Slam trophies from the hard courts of the U.S. Open and Australian Open but never has been past the third round on the red clay of Roland-Garros.
Osaka was undone Monday by 54 unforced errors. That was twice as many as Badosa. After taking the opening set, Osaka was treated by a trainer for hand blisters. She attributed the blisters, which also bothered her at the Italian Open this month, to “the friction of clay, because I don't have blisters on any other surface.”
Alcaraz, Swiatek off to good starts
Iga Swiatek, who has struggled lately, and Carlos Alcaraz got off to good starts in their French Open title defences, recording straight-set victories to reach the second round. Swiatek defeated 42nd-ranked Rebecca Sramkova 6-3, 6-3. She compiled 25 winners and 17 unforced errors in the 1-hour, 24-minute contest. Alcaraz needed only about a half-hour more than that for a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Giulio Zeppieri, an Italian qualifier who is ranked 310th. Alcaraz won all 14 of his service games, saving the three break points he faced.
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