When you roll through an opponent 6-0, 6-0 it has to feel a little bit like a fun ride on a bicycle.
That winds right into the French jargon for a double bagel; “deux roues de bicyclette” (two bicycle wheels.)
Shortly after her merciless 6-0, 6-0 victory over Yao Xinxin of China at Roland-Garros on Monday, Bianca Andreescu was told about the expression. But it turned out she already knew about it – but just barely. A French friend had texted it to her right after the match.
It was a good day for Andreescu’s French. Post-match, the on-court interviewer asked her what her hopes were for this year’s tournament, she didn’t hold anything back, declaring, “I want to win it.” She then took the mike and addressed the crowd in Court Suzanne Lenglen saying, “merci beaucoup pour votre soutien – je suis très heureuse d’être ici à Roland-Garros.” (Thanks for your support – I am very happy to be here at Roland-Garros.)
Her use of the host country’s language also extended to the match court as she could be heard saying “merci” to a ballboy who handed her a ball before a point.
In the opening game of this year’s qualifying event in the largest stadium in use - 10,056-seat Court Suzanne Lenglen – Andreescu won her first service game to love and never looked back. Did she mind the 10 a.m. start? “No not at all,” Andreescu laughed. “I’ve become more of a morning person.” She was also pleased to be assigned to Suzanne Lenglen. “I like the big courts with lots of people watching,” she said.
Yao’s only real chance to get a number on the board came when she had three game points in the second set. Andreescu mixed in a lot of high loopers – often followed by coup de grace hard-hit winners. Nine of those on the forehand side she had already put away by the start of the fifth game of the match. Overall she just had too much firepower and moxie for Yao – winning 51 total points to 20 for the over-matched, left-handed, 20-year-old Chinese.
Next for Andreescu will be 30-year-old Japanese veteran Nao Hibino, who has a 2-6 lifetime record at Roland Garros.
Two Canadians with much less experience than Andreescu’s seven previous appearances at Roland Garros – Marina Stakusic and Carson Branstine – made positive moves in their opening matches with straight-set wins.
Both were able to over-power their opposition – with Stakusic beating 31-year-old American Lauren Davis 6-4, 6-4 while Branstine advanced 6-4, 6-2 over another American, 23-year-old Whitney Osuigwe in matches that were played back-to-back on Court 4.
“It was an up-and-down sometimes messy match but it’s great to get through it and be a bit more consistent now,” said Guillaume Marx, Tennis Canada’s Vice-President of High Performance. “Marina controlled the match, both when she won and lost points.”
Stakusic is in an interregnum between coaches after parting ways with Rob Steckley following the Miami Open. She’s working with various Tennis Canada personnel at the moment before finding a more permanent coach.
“There were definitely a bit of nerves with the first round of a Slam qualies,” Stakusic explained about her performance on Monday. “I’m just happy that in the end I was able to pull through and play my game and get over the line.”
The diminutive Davis is a tenacious competitor but lacks the weapons that Stakusic possesses. “I just tried to play aggressive, attack her serve and make her move,” the 20-year-old Torontonian said about Davis.
It was a pleasant springtime Paris day and Stakusic confirmed that saying, “there was barely any wind – it was nice warm, sunny. The other days it was a little bit chilly but today was perfect conditions.”
In Wednesday’s second round, the world no. 126 will be matched up against world no. 148 Tamara Korpatsch. Stakusic defeated the 30-year-old German 6-2, 7-5 at the Cluj-Napoca (Romania) WTA event in February. “She’s tough for sure, she’s feisty,” Stakusic said about Korpatsch. “It’s going to be a tough match.”
Branstine’s opponent on Wednesday will be no. 124-ranked Rebeka Masarova, a 25-year-old Swiss.
There is no way that Branstine will be as familiar with Makarova as she was with Osuigwe. (See post-match embrace here.) “I think I’ve known Whitney since I was nine or 10 years old,” Branstine said.
Did that make it tough to play her? “Of course. I really like Whitney as a person, she’s a friend. So you never want to play your friends early but it’s also comfortable as well as having something familiar going into my first Grand Slam.”
Branstine, 24, made a couple of credible shouts of “allez” after her good points. Asked about her French, she said, “I try. Every time I come back to Paris or to Montreal I surprise myself with how much I understand – Uber drivers or waiters or something. I get around pretty well. I can’t have a deep conversation but I’ll get better.”
About Monday’s match, the almost 5-foot-10 Branstine said, “I’m really pleased that I stayed calm in the big moments because Whitney can come back at any time. She’s very athletic and she’s been here before and has won a lot of tennis matches. I made some really big shots at the right time.”
Mainly based in Orange, California, and mostly a hard-court player, she raved about the terre battue at Roland-Garros, “I love clay. It might surprise some people because I’m tall and I’ve had a lot of injuries in my life. It’s not the normal clay at Roland-Garros – it’s like playing in heaven.” Why? “The clay is perfect. There’s no bad bounces. It’s like not too slow, not too fast – a nice bounce always. It makes it enjoyable being in an atmosphere like this.”
The day ended on a disappointing note as Alexis Galarneau battled gallantly but was edged 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-3 at the finish by French wild card, no. 282-ranked Matteo Martineau. The match on Court 13 had all the attributes of those long-evening-shadow contests with a partisan crowd encouraging their man but not being overly unfair to the guy on the other side of the net. The closeness of the match was further accentuated by the singsong symmetry of the names – Galarneau and Martineau having a three-syllable similarity.
There were the usual woulda/coulda/shoulda moments in the two hour, 31-minute encounter – including it looking like Galarneau could build on the second set win when he had a game point to go up 2-0 in the third.
Martineau, playing in his first Roland-Garros, is a big guy who plays a game more suited to fast surfaces with his serve and an ability to cover the net. In the end it took him three match points to get the victory – the last coming on a Galarneau backhand unforced error into the net.
The 26-year-old from Laval, north of Montreal, was playing in his second Roland-Garros qualifying event. Last year, he was also beaten by a Frenchman, Quentin Halys, in the opening round.
It was a tough loss but, with his gleaming white teeth and winsome smile, he responded to a question about whether he had any regrets. “Regrets – maybe the start of the first-set tiebreak when I found myself down 0-4, so I was playing from behind and that was complicated. But otherwise I don’t have too many regrets. I tried to take advantage of the situation – it’s not everyday that you get an opportunity to play at Roland-Garros. I enjoyed myself – it was a great atmosphere. And it had been a while (a wrist issue) since I’ve played a tournament (the Tallahassee Challenger in mid-April). So I’m okay with my game and how I played.”
He said the wrist is getting better. “That’s what’s encouraging and why I can smile after the match. My body is holding up so there’s a positive in that.”
As the match was winding down, two women, who had tried unsuccessfully to get into over-crowded Court 13, sat down to watch on the big screen outside Court Suzanne Lenglen. Said one to the other, “at least we can see the match from here.” (Galarneau is on the left screen below.)
FRENCH FLAIR
The French are renowned for their artistic talents – be it fashion, painting, theatre, architecture…whatever.On the fence encircling Roland-Garros, the French Tennis Federation is paying tribute to its staff with a series of photos.
This one – of ticketing manager Emeline Dubois – seems particularly clever.
