He may be carrying a little more around the middle than in his pomp, but Andre Agassi’s star appeal was undeniable at Roland Garros on Wednesday as his charge Novak Djokovic romped to a second-round win.
Almost as many cameras were trained on the American legend as there were on Djokovic throughout the latter’s 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 dismantling of Joao Sousa.
Djokovic controlled his opponent throughout, with Agassi closely monitoring from court-side, a look of concern occasionally clouding his mien. But Agassi need not have worried. Having raced through the first set in a little over half an hour, Djokovic established his rhythm and just pulled away.
Also advancing were fourth seed Rafael Nadal with yet another solid performance in a straight set win over Robin Haase, No. 6 Dominic Thiem, No. 10 David Goffin and Grigor Dimitrov, the 11th seed.
However, 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga crashed out, falling to Roland Garros debutant Renzo Olivio, who held his overnight advantage to pull off a 7-5, 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-4 win in the first round.
On the women’s side, fourth seed and defending champion Garbine Muguruza came back from a set down to claim a 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 victory over Anett Kontaveit.
The story of the day, however, was Petra Kvitova’s comeback journey coming to an end with a 7-6(5), 7-6(5) defeat to Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Kvitova’s was promising to be the feel-good story at this year’s tournament, with the Czech choosing to return to action at Roland Garros after recovering from the trauma and knife injuries to her playing hand from a home invasion earlier this year.
After a tight match, Mattek-Sands greeted Kvitova with a long hug at the net. “I told her that it was really inspiring to see her back and playing such good tennis after not competing for that many months and having to deal with the kind of the mental and emotional things that I’m sure she’s gone through,” Mattek-Sands said.
Kvitova, who was fired up enough to even toss her racquet in disgust after missing a shot, was pragmatic.
“It’s weird. I mean, I’m disappointed, for sure. I came here to win the matches,” she said. “But I really fight. I mean, after the match, I didn’t feel that bad as normally I probably do.
“I have to say that I’m, kind of, surprised how I played, even though I lost. I think it was good fight, but I think the tie-break showed that I don’t really have matches under my belt.
“But I feel good. I’m happy that I’m back.”
In doubles action, Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas and Leander Paes and Scott Lipsky made it past the first hurdle while fourth seeds Sania Mirza and Yaroslava Shvedova were stunned by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Daria Gavrilova in three sets.
