Failed Russian derby

Four out of five Russian women, whose first round matches fell on Sunday, had to perform in the morning in difficult weather conditions.

In Paris, it was drizzling with light rain and the temperature was around 10 ° C.

It was extremely difficult to play on slippery ground, and the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka even refused to continue the match until the weather got better.

Ekaterina Aleksandrova was one of the first to enter the second round.

The 27-seeded tennis player defeated Australia's Madison Inglis, who is 124th in the world rankings.

The first racket of Russia won with a score of 6: 3, 6: 3.

She made six breaks, losing her serve three times.

Having spent less than an hour and a half to win, Alexandrova went to rest and wait for her rival, who could become compatriot Anna Blinkova.

However, the 58th racket of the world failed to repeat its last year's third round.

Blinkova met with another representative of Australia, Astra Sharma.

The Russian woman lost in the first game (3: 6), took the second (6: 2), but lost in the decisive one (5: 7).

Her rival, better known for her performances in doubles, won the match at the Grand Slam tournament for the second time in her career.

Rakhimova's debut in the second round

The current Roland Garros has opened a new name in Russian women's tennis.

19-year-old Kamilla Rakhimova was able not only to overcome the qualification sieve, but also to reach the second round.

A native of Yekaterinburg knocked out Shelby Rogers, an American, who recently played in the quarterfinals of the US Open.

The match between them lasted a little over an hour.

Rakhimova easily won the first set, giving her opponent only two games.

In the second, Rogers did not change anything in her game in order to resist, and lost the game with a score of 3: 6.

Now the young Russian woman will have to meet with an even more serious rival, the 24th racket of the world, Maria Sakkari from Greece.

She, in turn, beat the Australian Ayla Tomljanovic, also giving up only five games.

Around the grounds 🎾



Kamilla Rakhimova, @mariasakkari, @astrasharma & @elise_mertens all through to the second round.



Results 👉 https://t.co/WsJjbFYJI1pic.twitter.com/ujL7vvXJdd

- Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) September 27, 2020

Departure of Gasparyan and Kalinskaya

Another Russian tennis player who had to wait a long time for the start of her match was Margarita Gasparyan.

She was to meet with the 16th seed Eliza Mertens from Belgium.

The girls have already played with each other in the second round of the Australian Open in 2019, and then the more titled rival of the Russian woman turned out to be stronger.

This time, Mertens also prevailed, although both tennis players showed almost equal statistics on actively won draws.

They even had the same number of break points, but Mertens realized them in seven cases out of ten, and Gasparyan - only in four.

This was the key to the victory of the Belgian tennis player with a score of 6: 2, 6: 3.

Then she will meet with the veteran of women's tennis Kaia Kanepi from Estonia.

The last of the Russians to fight on Sunday was Anna Kalinskaya.

Her rival was the Canadian Eugenie Bouchard.

The 2014 Roland Garros semi-finalist made it to the main draw thanks to a wild card, but the shape of the 168th racket in the world couldn't be underestimated.

In September, Bouchard reached the final of the clay tournament in Istanbul, beating Svetlana Kuznetsova, among others.

In the first round, Kalinskaya's serve did not go well at all - she made seven double mistakes.

Bouchard did not fail to take advantage of the Russian woman's problems to finish the match in her favor in two sets - 6: 4, 6: 4.

Rublyov's victorious rehearsal

On the first day of Roland Garros, Andrei Rublev was not in Paris or even in France.

While most tennis players were playing the first round matches on the clay Major, the Russian played with the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the ATP 500 tournament in Hamburg.

Rublev won three sets and won the fifth and currently the most prestigious title of his career.

Rublyov won all his previous victories at the less-status ATP 250 tournaments.

This season the tournament in the German port city turned into a rehearsal for Roland Garros.

On the way to the final, the 22-year-old Russian defeated the Americans Tennis Sandgren and Tommy Paul, the strong Spaniard Robert Bautista Agut and the Norwegian Kasper Ruud.

To win the third title in a year, Rublev had to overcome the resistance of the sixth racket of the world Tsitsipas.

He won the first set, but in the second the Greek managed to recoup, after which in the third he took the lead with a break and could serve for the match with the score 5: 4 in his favor.

But then Tsitsipas's game suddenly fell apart, he began to make too many mistakes, which Rublev immediately used, winning three games in a row.

The Russian will go to Paris in the status of the 12th racket of the world.

On September 29, Rublev will meet with American Sam Querrey.