It is a successful introduction for the favorites of the tournament: Novak Djokovic, who aims for the record of 23 Grand Slam titles, negotiated his first match on Monday, May 29 at Roland-Garros while his main rival, Carlos Alcaraz, also easily qualified by crushing his opponent of the day in less than two hours.

"I'm happy. I started the tournament well and I hope I can raise my level," said the 36-year-old Serb, in French in front of the Philippe-Chatrier court audience just after dismissing American Aleksandar Kovacevic (114th in the world) 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7/1).

"I played well the first two sets, then I lost a little concentration, but he raised his level of play. In Grand Slams, the opponent does not give you the victory, you have to deserve it, "added the world N.3 who will face in the second round the Hungarian colossus Marton Fucsovics (83rd).

The Serb now has 86 victories at Roland-Garros where only the master of the place Nadal, titled 14 times but absent this year, has done better (112).

His main challenger this year will certainly be the world N.1 Carlos Alcaraz who easily beat on court Suzanne Lenglen the Italian Flavio Cobolli (159th and from qualifying) in three sets: 6-0, 6-2, 7-5.

"It's great to play here, it's a great court, there was a great energy," said Carlitos, who "knew how to move on quickly" when Cobolli delayed the deadline in the third set.

In the second round, Alcaraz will face Japan's Taro Daniel (112th).

In the men's draw, the start of this second day of the tournament was also marked by the defeat of Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (10th), physically diminished, against Italian Fabio Fognini (130th) 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.

Frenchman Benoît Paire (149th and beneficiary of an invitation) also almost created the surprise since he had made the break in the fifth set against the British Cameron Norrie (13th) but finally lost 7-5, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Norrie will face another Frenchman in the second round, the returning Lucas Pouille (675th and from qualifying) who has not played in the second round of a Major since the 2019 US Open.

Garcia with forceps

In the women's draw, Caroline Garcia, ranked 5th in the world, struggled to make her debut, snatching a 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 6-4 victory in 2:38 against China's Xiyu Wang (64th).

Obviously very tense throughout the game, the Frenchwoman almost never managed to deploy her aggressive tennis.

"The match was really hooked, she has a very good game, she was full of confidence with a good result in Rome (defeat in the 8th final while Garcia lost in the third round, editor's note), there was a lot of wind ...", listed the 29-year-old Frenchwoman.

"But I tried to have the right attitude, to always be positive, to find solutions as I went along. I managed to maintain this attitude when it had not been the case in recent weeks, so it's a super positive point," she said.

In the next round, she will face Belarus' Anna Blinkova (56th).

For her part, Kristina Mladenovic (166th) could not make her invitation fruitful: she lost at the beginning of the day against the American Kayla Day (138th) 7-5, 6-1.

Ukraine's Elina Svitolina, a former No. 3 player in the world who fell to No. 192 after a one-year break, defeated Italy's Martina Trevisan (No. 6), a semifinalist last year, 2-6, 2-26.

Drafted from qualifying, the Russian Elina Avanesyan also offered herself a victory of choice at the expense of the 12th world Belinda Bencic and will meet in the second round the French Léolia Jeanjean.

After Sunday's victory of Aryna Sabalenka (2nd), the other two title contenders Iga Swiatek (1st) and Elena Rybakina (4th) will play their first round on Tuesday.

With AFP

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