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At the time of writing, all of the opening rounds for the 2022 French Open have been concluded. Over 100 matches have been played over the last three days. And there have certainly been some notable results. We’ve seen major upsets already in both the men’s and women’s events, and we’ve also seen some fantastic matches across the board.
But here, I will be focusing on a recap of the men’s event. All of the top stories from the opening rounds can be seen below.
Top Stories in the Men’s Event
Contents
There have already been some major news in the men’s tournament. And to keep things simple, I’ve split the news into three categories:
Surprise Upsets
One of the biggest upsets occurred after 1 am last night. Gilles Simon managed to beat the 16th seed, Carreno-Busta, in a late-night thriller. He was 4-3 down with a break in the fifth set. But the crowd got behind him and pulled the 37-year-old through! This really was one of the best opening rounds.
In other news, Hugo Gaston managed to beat the 19th seed, Alex de Minaur. This was a huge upset as de Minaur has been in good form on the clay this season, yet this one went right down to the wire. Gaston ultimately pulled through 7-6 in the fifth, again, with an awesome atmosphere delivered thanks to the French crowd.
The third and final upset that I found very surprising was Shapovalov losing to Rune, in straight sets I might add. Shapovalov was the 14th seed and he’d recently beaten Nadal in Rome. But ultimately, he went down in a fairly straightforward match.
Awesome Matches
When it comes to awesome matches, it’s all about the five-set thrillers. And believe me, the men’s draw has been full of them already. The number 9th seed, Auger-Aliassime, came back from a 2-0 deficit to overcome Varillas in five. The qualifier, Ugo Carabelli took down the mighty Karatsev, 7-6 in the fifth.
Cecchinato also came back from a 2-0 deficit against the clay-court veteran, Pablo Andujar. This game lasted almost 4 hours before Cecchinato got the win on a very lively outside court. And of course, I couldn’t leave this section without mentioning the Stefanos Tsitsipas effort on the show court. He dropped the opening two sets against Musetti before showing the French crowd exactly why he is the 4th seed this year.
The final three sets that the Greek played were truly exemplary.
Other Talking Points
Of course, the first rounds of the men’s event also had some other interesting talking points too. On the show court, we waved goodbye to a legend in the form of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. It was an immensely emotional affair, with barely a dry eye from both the players and the crowd. But for me, it was a great tribute to a true gladiator of our sport.
We also witnessed Stan Wawrinka complaining to the umpire that the water he was being given was too cold. This was a first for me, and whether it impacted Stan the Man or not, he lost quite comfortably to Moutet. And finally, in Djokovic’s opening round, he seemed insanely pumped up, even by his standards.
Whether this was a message to others or just Djokovic letting out the nerves, I wouldn’t want to be in his path this year!
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