Jabeur, Thiem crash at French Open as Alcaraz starts Roland Garros bid
PARIS: Arab trailblazer Ons Jabeur crashed out of the French Open at the first hurdle on Sunday as Spanish teenage sensation Carlos Alcaraz prepared to give Roland Garros a glimpse of the future of Grand Slam tennis.
Sixth seed Jabeur, seen as a potential champion, despite never having previously got past the fourth round, lost 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 to Poland’s 56th-ranked Magda Linette.
Jabeur came into the event with a season-leading 17 wins on clay in 2022 and with the prestigious Madrid title under her belt.
However, she was undone on Sunday by 24 unforced errors in the two hour 28-minute match.
Linette had lost to Jabeur in the third round in 2021 having stunned an injury-hit top seed Ashleigh Barty in her previous match.
“I just tried to stay focused after the first set and tried to make her uncomfortable. I was happy to fight for every single point’’, said Linette who needed treatment on a leg injury after dropping the first set.
“I wanted to put her in the situation where she couldn’t move me around as much.”
Two-time runner-up Dominic Thiem, whose ranking has slipped to 194 after a lengthy battle with a wrist injury, was another early casualty, losing 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to 87th-ranked Hugo Dellien of Bolivia.
Thiem, the 2020 US Open champion, has yet to win a match in six attempts since his return in March. He has now lost 10 tourlevel matches in a row. His last victory came in Rome just over a year ago.
NOT GREATEST FEELING
The 28-year-old Austrian, a former world number three, reached at least the quarterfinals at Roland Garros five years running from 2016 to 2020.
He finished runner-up to Rafael Nadal in 2018 and 2019.
“It’s not the greatest feeling to go in a Grand Slam knowing that all is not perfect in practice. I don’t play like I would like to in practice’’, said the Austrian.
Alcaraz, 19, bidding to become just the eighth teenager to capture a major men’s title, is widely tipped to end the dominance of 13-time champion Rafael Nadal and twotime winner Novak Djokovic.
He is the tour’s dominant player in 2022, winning a season-leading 28 matches with just three losses.
Three of his titles have come on clay in Rio, Barcelona and
Madrid where he defeated Nadal, Djokovic and world number three Alexander Zverev to take the title.
Later on Sunday, Alcaraz begins his French Open campaign against Argentine lucky loser Juan Ignacio Londero, ranked at 141 but who made the last 16 in 2019.
Alcaraz was ranked 97 this time last year. He was only two when Nadal won the first of his 13 French Opens in 2005 but he made his mark at the 2021 tournament where he came through qualifying to reach the third round.