Petra Kvitova Avoids French Open Upset; Monday With Halep, Radwanska And Muguruza

Only five women’s matches were completed amidst the rains in Paris on Sunday, with three seeds advancing into the second round.
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Seeded winners were No. 10 Petra Kvitova surviving a three-set encounter with Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, No. 11 Lucie Safarova rolling Russian Vitalia Diatchenko 6-0, 6-2, and No. 24 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova stomping Spain’s Sara Sorribes 6-2, 6-0.

“It’s nice to have the match finished,” Safarova said. “Obviously now I have two days off, which I can train, hopefully, and get back to my routine. But I don’t think it does a huge impact in the draw results. I mean, obviously today it’s tough conditions because of the rain and delays and the balls are quite heavy, but it’s same for everyone.”

Kvitova eventually wrestled down Kovinic and the drizzly conditions.

“I think that in the second set when I was serving to make it 4-1, I missed four easy backhands and I felt like that was kind of the turning point and I was kind of down mentally after this game,” Kvitova said. “I think she just came back and tried to play more aggressive. I was I think running too far behind the baseline. I was just trying to put the ball in, but it’s not really my game. It was a very difficult match today. But in the end, I think that the end of the match was kind of sorry from my side. It was a big fight again. I’m happy that I won it.”

Unseeded winners were Swiss Viktorija Golubic outlasting American Alison Riske 6-2, 1-6, 6-2, and Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei beating Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena Vecino 7-6(6), 6-3

Women’s matches to watch for on Monday in Roland Garros are (14) Ana Ivanovic vs. France’s own Oceane Dodin, (13) Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Yaroslava resuming with the Russian up 3-1 in the third, (25) Irina-Camelia Begu vs. upset specialist Bethanie Mattek-Sands, (17) Karolina Pliskova vs. plucky Shelby Rogers, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni vs. Daniela Hantuchova in a veteran battle, and (19) Sloane Stephens vs. Russian riser Margarita Gasparyan.