Elina Svitolina pulled off a close one on the second day, Monday, of the French Open, formally the Internationaux de France, edging Anna Bondar in a 10-point third-set tiebreak. That was nice if you are rooting for the brave Ukrainian players — all women, the men are at the front — who represent their battered country on the international stage. (Svitolina, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (3)) (RELATED: Elina the Great, Again)
It’s the sports stage not the political stage and the two don’t mix, but it is a fact that on Sunday the Russians attacked Kyiv with missiles and Marta Kostyuk’s mom and grandmother and aunt were in a building right next to one that got hit and she was worried to tears all morning but went out there and, like her friend and compatriot, pulled it off with a straight-set win over Oksana Selekhmeteva, whose Russian-by-origin hand she did not shake, notwithstanding Miss Selekhmeteva recently took Spanish citizenship. (Kostyuk, 6-2, 6-3).
First round eliminations hurt, but consider: at a tennis major, you start with a 128-name draw. That means by the time it takes to play all the first-round matches, you are down to 64 in each singles draw, and some of the losers are also competing in doubles and mixed doubles. They know they are among the best of the best, and there will be other chances to prove it.
Moreover, it happens to the best of them. Barbora Krejčíková lost her first round match, but she has won the French Open in 2021, Wimbledon in 2024, every major in doubles (three of them twice) for a Career Grand Slam, three Australian Opens mixed doubles, and doubles at both the WTA Finals in the Olympics, in ‘21.
Keep that in perspective when you feel sorry for yourself for a setback in the office rat race. Top athletes get right back to work and do not mope over setbacks. Miss Krejčíková was facing a rising star, Washington DC’s own Hailey Baptiste, whose grit and fight got her back from a set down and a break and two match points in the thrilling second set tiebreak. In the third set, the Czech star lost some of her fearsome target-power from the baseline, possibly a sign she is not fully recovered from injuries she suffered after those brilliant recent Hall-of-Fame seasons when she broke into singles after the glory years in doubles. (Baptiste, 6-7, 7-6, 6-2).
Meanwhile, the weather is unusually warm in Paris, or so my sources tell me, and fans and players are “sweltering.” Thirty, 33 degrees, they say, counting by Celsius, which translates to around 90. No one denies that is balmy, but is it hot? There is also talk of the balls taking higher, faster bounces, which actually makes sense, since higher temperatures loosen up the molecules inside, making them livelier. While I sympathize — and just between you and me, there is a reason perfume was invented, or largely innovated, in France — I can scarcely feel this is something to complain about, and I would doubt any serious players, while they might mention it, would use it as an excuse for losing a match. Climate affects everybody, and nobody can do anything about it.
The love of Elina Svitolina’s life, Gael Monfils, took his last bow at Roland, as he has announced his retirement at the end of this season, falling to his compatriot Hugo Gaston in five sets that lasted nearly to midnight, a thriller you may be sure I will watch and re-watch because it was another Monfils classic, down two sets, two-set come-back, and then a bagel — exhaustion? — in the fifth. (RELATED: Love and Tennis Live On)
A heartbreak, but it’s okay to go out fighting, and maybe there is some compensation in knowing his pal Stan Wawrinka made his own last stand a few hours earlier on the charming Simonne-Mathieu court bordered by the rare plants of the exotic garden. He played four sets of exquisite baseline cross-court duels against Jesper De Jong, 16 years his junior. (RELATED: Stan’s the Man)
Stan-the-Man won every major except Wimbledon in his career, and I should say it’s worth knowing that his U.S Open win came against Novak Djokovic, who reached the final by beating Gael Monfils in the semis. (Wawrinka beat Kei Nishikori, who also recently announced this is his last season. Life races past us, but tennis endures.)
There were powerfully emotional tributes to both, after the matches, Stan staying how he loved this place and always gave his most to the game, and a few hours later Gael, “… wouldn’t be here without you,” he said to Elina, “always there to support me, as man and tennisman, and gave me the best gift in the world our daughter.” He didn’t forget his brother and sisters, too, nor all those ball boys and girls and groundskeepers and security and coaches who worked to make Roland-Garros.
Some of their great rivals appeared on video, as they had at the tribute for Stan, to salute and thank him and wish him well. And his great cohort, the “new musketeers” who played for France with him for over 20 years, joined him on the court, and the fans, for a time, forgot they were sweltering. It must have been a little cooler late in the evening, but then the heart doesn’t follow the weather, so if anything, the heat was more intense than ever, for Gael has earned his fans’ hearts. It was a great moment, you can feel it even from far away, and everyone knew that in the morning, the show would go on.
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