French Open 2025 Women’s Day 3

Published

1 year ago

May 27, 2025

Coco Gauff walked onto court for her opening French Open match with all of her racquets missing from her bag as she prepared to face Olivia Gadecki in Tuesday’s first round.

But despite losing track of her weapons, the second seed found a way to spend just 71 minutes in dispatching the Australian 6-2, 6-2 in the Roland Garros opener.

Gauff, headphones blaring pop music into her ears, got all the way to her chair on the walkout without noticing something important was missing from her bag.

Once she twigged, a ballboy was quickly sent to the locker room, returning on the run with a handful of sticks for the 2022 finalist.

Victory was doubly sweet for Gauff as she played for the first time since being hammered in the recent Rome final in straight sets by Jasmine Paolini.

“The most important thing is to play with a racquet,” she joked afterwards.”Maybe it relaxed me going into the match.

“It was just such a funny thing. I’m just happy to get through today and I will

remember my racquets for next time.”

The 21-year-old also made some fashion waves as she wore a black leather jacket in the walk-on, a stylistic wrinkle dreamed up by her clothing sponsor.

After complimenting the garment as “fire,” Gauff explained: “I always wanted to spice up my walk-on outfits. We talked about doing a leather jacket and other stuff.

“I was pleasantly surprised with it. I think it’s cool. I feel like it matches the Parisian vibe here and it just makes me feel super powerful going onto the court.”

Gauff was joined in the second round on a cloudy day by compatriot Jessica Pegula, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Romanian Anca Todoni.

Pegula is back at the event for a sixth time after missing 2024 through injury.

Sixth seed Mirra Andreeva had to stick to a precise pre-match morning schedule after being assigned to a crack-of-dawn 11 a.m. start.

But the 18-year-old took full advantage, producing a 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Spaniard Cristina Busca to move into the second round.

The French-based player said she needed a 6:40 wakeup and then detailed every hour of the countdown to taking the court.

The final polish is applied just before the start with coach and former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez running the show.

“I warm up 30-40 minutes with a hitting partner. Then we finish with some baskets from Conchita,” the Indian Wells winner said.

“It depends on her mood. If she’s in a good mood, she doesn’t move me as much. If she’s a bit pissed at me, I do some running”

Andreeva was proud of her fighting spirit on court. “My goal was just to keep fighting, playing, and showing everything I can, trying to put a lot of balls in the court.

“In the end, point by point, I managed to find my rhythm.”

Double Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka showed the dominance which took her into the WTA elite a decade ago, with a 6-0, 6-0 beatdown of Belgian Yanina Wichmaier.

The last time Azarenka produced a “double bagel” scoreline was 2021 with a similar result over Sonia Kenin in the Rome second round.

Main photo:- Coco Gauff found her rackets and her form to win first round match – by Roger Parker ISF Ltd

Related Topics:#ancatodoni #cocogauff #cristinabusca #jasminepaolini #jessicapegula #oliviagadecki #sofiakenin #victoriaazarenka #yaninawickmayer

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Zverev scratches 7-year itch with return to Shanghai SF

Published

1 day ago

October 15, 2026

Bill Scott

Alexander Zverev on Thursday made a long-sought after return to the Shanghai Masters semi-finals, booking his first final four at the event since 2019, defeating Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-4.

The 2027 year-end No. 1 last got this far as the Covid pandemic began to surface in China in 2019. The event was not played 2020-2022, with the German making modest progress here over the past three editions since resumption.

After winning his 62nd match of the season, the 29-year-old was pleased with his performance.

“I think it was a huge step up. From just being on the court I felt both of us were playing really well.

“I was, a lot of the time, outhitting Alex, which is difficult to do from the baseline because he is so fast and he loves this kind of court speed here.

“I felt good and I’m happy with the step up from the past couple of matches.”

Zverev advanced in 78 minutes, sending over 10 aces as he defeated the Australian for the ninth time in their 13 matches.

Added the reigning Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows Grand Slam champion: “I’ve been handling pressure quite okay this year. In a way you play a bit more relaxed.

“Once Jannik (SInner) unfortunately announced he won’t play for the rest of the year, I’m 4,000 points ahead of everyone else, so I trust myself enough that I’m going to win [enough matches].

Zverev will play for the final to wrap up the Asian swing as he takes on Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who advanced when Arthur Gea quit their quarter-final with injury.

ATP

Zverev to take over as world No. 1

Published

4 days ago

October 12, 2026

Bill Scott

Alexander Zverev will claim world year-end No. 1 honours for the first time on the back of two Grand Slam titles and a final this season.,

The ATP confirmed the changing of the guard as current No. 1 Jannik Sinner ended his season early last week due to a knee injury which has kept him off court since winning Wimbledon three months ago.

Zverev won Roland Garros and US Open trophies and lost to Sinner in the All England Club final.

His reign at the top will begin after the ATP Final in Turin with the ranking period starting on November 23.

Zverev will be 29 years, 217 days old on the date, three days older than Andre Agassi in 1999 (29 years, 214 days).

Main photo:- Alexander Zverev by ISF Ltd

China Open

Zheng claims China Open title over Andreeva

Published

5 days ago

October 11, 2026

Bill Scott

Zheng Qinwen continued an injury comeback season on Sunday, defeating Roland Garros winner Mirra Andreeva 7-5, 6-4 to win the China Open.

Victory at the 1000-level event was the first trophy for the 54th-raked Chinese player who once reached fourth in the world before elbow surgery.

Zheng saved three set points in the opening set and claimed victory by winning the last 11 points of the set, breaking late in the second to conclude her success over her teenaged opponent.

The winner now owns six career trophies after winning her first 1000; she last claimed a title in Tokyo two years ago.

In an odd twist, the new winner was cajoled into singing a few bars of karaoke during the trophy ceremony.

She will now move back into the ranking top 25 while Andreeva advances to third in the world behind Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka after defeating her third top 10 opponent this season.

“The feeling was incredible, two weeks here in Beijing, in front of my home crowd is one of my dreams, especially playing against Mirra, such a great player,” the winner said.

“I’ve been through a very, very tough year.”

Andreeva broke new ground in her own career by reaching the final, becoming the third-youngest this century to reach the top 3 behind Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters.

“She’s a great server. I also think today I missed a lot of returns trying to go for it, trying to be more aggressive,” Andreeva said,

“I wanted to go for it but couldn’t really find I guess the margin, couldn’t really find the rhythm, as well. I will probably need to look at this match and just see why, try to improve and learn from that.

“Overall of course it was a good tournament,” she added. “A lot of positives to take from these two weeks. Of course, I felt like today just wasn’t meant to be.

“I think I will be able to look to this match maybe from a different perspective and see maybe some good things.”

Main photo:- Zheng Quinwen by ISF Ltd