Tennis Channel's Daily Serve recaps Day 2 at Roland Garros.
It was not a great day for American tennis at Roland Garros, with Jack Sock, the top-ranked U.S. man, and Coco Vandeweghe, the 19th-seeded woman, losing their first-round matches. The only positive, if you want to look at it this way, is that their beatings were administered quickly. Jiri Vesely, who lost to Sock at the Rome Masters just two weeks ago, avenged that defeat in their rematch, 7-5, 7-5, 6-3. Vandeweghe’s stay at Roland Gaarros lasted just 76 minutes; she mustered just five games in a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Magdelana Rykbarikova.
Sock and Vandeweghe didn’t have to suffer because they were never close to winning their matches. The same could not be said for another pair of Americans, Donald Young and Jennifer Brady. Both played tennis’ version of overtime at Roland Garros, which doesn’t mandate a final-set tiebreaker after the combatants reach 6-6.
Brady, the 88th-ranked 22-year-old who won six matches in January’s Australian Open—three in qualifying, and three in the main draw—was given the task of facing the top-ranked Frenchwoman on Court Philippe Chatrier. It’s a scenario that can make any player tremble—including the crowd favorite. It was that see-saw of nerves that undoubtedly contributed to five consecutive breaks of serve before Mladenovic finally held, after twice failing to serve out the match, for a 3-6, 6-3, 9-7 triumph.
Mladenovic won just 65 percent of her first-serve points, a statistic dragged down by her struggle to close out the contest. But despite holding a 3-0 lead in the third set, Brady couldn’t sustain her advantage against her obviously anxious opponent, dealing with the pressure of expectations at her home Slam for the first time. In my opinion, it would have a greater upset than Ekaterina Makarova’s win over No. 1 seed Angelique Kerber, and many fans seemed to agree.
