Andujar knocks Thiem out, Zverev survives scare

Spain’s Pablo Andujar celebrates after winning his French Open first round match against Austria’s Dominic Thiem (below) at Roland Garros in Paris, France, yesterday. (Reuters)

Two-time runner-up Dominic Thiem was knocked out in the first round of the French Open by Spanish journeyman Pablo Andujar 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in the first major upset of the claycourt Grand Slam yesterday.Sixth seed Alexander Zverev rallied from two sets down to beat qualifier Oscar Otte 3-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-0, even as two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova saved a match point en route to a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-1 victory over Belgian qualifier Greet Minnen.It first seemed that Andujar’s win against 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer in Geneva earlier this month would count for nothing. But Austrian Thiem’s game began to unravel after a dominant start on court Philippe Chatrier.Thiem, who reached the final in Paris in 2018 and 2019, had never lost in the opening round at Roland Garros, but that prospect grew as Andujar went for his shots and unsettled his 27-year-old opponent.Thiem broke back after conceding a break in the first game of the decider, but Andujar kept on piling up the pressure with deep strokes and broke again for 3-2.The 35-year-old, ranked 68th in the world, then held serve throughout to claim victory after nearly four-and-a-half hours after Thiem made a total of 66 unforced errors.Thiem, who took a break to ‘reset his game’ earlier this season and also battled injuries, entered the tournament short of confidence and yesterday’s clash with Andujar showed he had yet to rediscover his touch even though he had reached the semi-finals at the Madrid Masters this month.“I was not struggling at all with my motivation but the game was just not there today,” he said.“Like all the shots are missing power. They are not accurate enough. I’m moving not well enough, so everything in my game there are some percents missing.”Andujar, on the other hand, was on a roll after beating Federer on the Geneva clay.“I believed in myself because I played well (against Federer) two weeks ago. Usually being drawn against Thiem is a bad draw,” the Spaniard said.“Winning today against a player like him is like a gift, even if he has not been at his best recently, because I’m 35 and I don’t know how long I’m going to be playing for.“Beating Roger was an even bigger gift. I feel like Father Christmas came to my home.”Later, Zverev too seemed headed for an early exit like Thiem, who beat him at the 2020 US Open final, when he lost the first two sets on the Suzanne Lenglen Court but the 24-year-old German found a different gear to completely turn the contest around.It was one way traffic against the 152nd ranked Otte in the first meeting between the two Germans for the remainder of the contest as Zverev’s movement on the red clay improved and he found more power in his shots and more sting in his serves.Zverev has now won all seven of his five-set contests at Roland Garros and will next meet another qualifier, either Russian Roman Safiullin or Carlos Taberner of Spain.Kvitova survives MinnenKvitova survived a big scare against Minnen in her three-setter yesterday.Kvitova, who reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros in 2012 and last year, struggled with her serve from the start and suffered service breaks in her first two games.The 11th seed fought back valiantly to take the opening set to a tie-breaker under slightly windy conditions on the Suzanne Lenglen court only to lose it by serving three double faults.The Czech was down 30-40 at 6-5 in the second set and staring at a first-round exit at Roland Garros for the first time since 2010 but saved the matchpoint with a crosscourt backhand winner and then levelled things in the tiebreaker.Her confidence soared in the decider and she jumped to a 5-0 lead in no time, losing just three points on serve in the third set.Kvitova will next meet Russian Elena Vesnina, who strolled past Belarusian Olga Govortsova 6-1, 6-0. Sabalenka advancesThird seed Aryna Sabalenka moved into the second round of the French Open with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Croatian qualifier Ana Konjuh.Sabalenka, who is seeking her maiden Grand Slam title, sent out a warning earlier this month when she won the Madrid Open but she started on the back foot when she was broken in the first game and soon found herself 4-2 down in 20 minutes.However, Sabalenka doubled down and found her bearings before her aggression came to the fore as she created angles to open up the court and capitalise with powerful winners to take a 5-4 lead.Konjuh, a former junior world number one looking to mount a career comeback after a series of elbow surgeries, went on the defensive and handed the opening set to Sabalenka when she double-faulted on set point.