Fernando Verdasco stunned ninth seed Alexander Zverev at Roland Garros on Tuesday, eliminating the in-form youngster 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in a first round match that was suspended overnight. World No. 1 Andy Murray made it through to the second round with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Andrey Kuznetsov.
The 33-year-old Verdasco outslugged Zverev when play resumed on Tuesday at one set each, with the German having lost momentum overnight after he had grabbed the second set and looked in control.
Instead of pushing to play on on Monday evening, Zverev agreed to Verdasco’s request to call a halt to play shortly after 8:30 p.m. local time.
The 20-year-old World No. 10, who had won three titles this year including the Rome Masters and was seen as an outside bet for the title here, had no answer to Verdasco’s punishing ground strokes.
Verdasco broke Zverev twice to clinch the third set before the latter collapsed in the fourth.
Early upset
In another early upset, No. 7 seed Johanna Konta bowed out with a 1-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 defeat to 109th-ranked Su-Wei Hsieh.
Considering the setting, the result is not all that surprising. Konta has now lost all three matches she has played at Roland Garros over her career.
With only four main draw wins on clay in her career, Konta was looking to prove she could be a force on the red surface.
The 26-year-old Briton got off to a flying start, winning 13 of the first 15 points and taking the first set.
But Hsieh fought back and Konta had to save five break points before her opponent eventually prevailed in the second-set tie-break, and then closed it out in the third.
Hsieh, the 2014 doubles champion here with Peng Shuai, was playing her first show-court match at the Stade Roland Garros.
“I was making jokes, ‘Oh, coach, I am so nervous I cannot play’,” said the Taiwanese.
“When you make it fun you feel more relaxed on the court. It was an amazing result.”
Juan Martin del Potro, back at Roland Garros for the first time in five years, had little trouble winning his first round match.
After a series of wrist operations kept him off Tour for months at a time, del Potro has shown that he is once again capable of using his big forehand to great effect. He beat qualifier Guido Pella 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 in an all-Argentine match-up.
del Potro showed no sign of the shoulder and back problems that hampered him at the Lyon Open last week and did not face a single break-point.
Third seed Stan Wawrinka launched his bid for a second title here with a slow start, toiling to find his rhythm before ultimately beating qualifier Jozef Kovalik 6-2, 7-6(6), 6-3.
The 2015 champion struggled to time the ball in an overcast Court Suzanne Lenglen, frequently spraying his trademark backhand drive long or into the net as he looked to keep the points short against the 152nd-ranked Kovalik, was making his Roland Garros debut.
But the Swiss did enough to win. Wawrinka will play Alexandr Dolgopolov in the second round.
