Before the 127th edition of the French Open finally picks up speed on Sunday, the tennis aces who are lurking behind the world’s best have to qualify for the second Grand Slam tournament of the year. After Laura Siegemund’s early cancellation, three men and five women from Germany are trying their luck. The first results are sobering.
While Yannick Hanfmann, seeded in the men’s qualification number two, had more trouble than expected against the recently unconvincing Italian Mattia Belucci, but ultimately prevailed 7:6 (7:3) and 6:4, Maximilian had to marterer already on Monday to the blatant outsider Dan Added from France, who was allowed to take part thanks to a wildcard. Marterer lost 4:4 and 4:6.
Dominik Koepfer, on the other hand, was able to knock out a seeded player. In the duel between the in-form clay court players against Zsombor Piros from Hungary, the German narrowly won 7:5, 2:6 and 6:1. Both Koepfer and Piros had achieved strong results in lower-tier tournaments prior to qualifying.
However, Hanfmann and Koepfer still need two wins in the qualification, as does Hungarian Fabian Marozsan, who defeated the Australian Li Tu 6:3 and 6:4 in round one. Marozsan caused a sensation at the ATP tournament in Rome when he defeated world number one Carlos Alcaraz.
In the women’s field, DTB hopeful Eva Lys had to bury her hopes for the main field on Monday. The German-Ukrainian lost to the Brazilian Carolina Alves 2: 6, 6: 3 and 3: 6. The German, who is significantly better placed in the world rankings, has been out of shape for weeks. Alves, on the other hand, was able to celebrate some notable successes.
With Noma Noha Akugue, perhaps the greatest German talent was just able to avert a defeat. Against the French Emma Léné, however, Noha Akugue needed an exhausting 3:10 hours at 7: 5, 4: 6, 6: 4. Placed outside the top 300 in the WTA rankings, Léné is one of the biggest underdogs in the field.
In addition, Katharina Hobgarski lost 6-4 and 6-2 to Belgian Greet Minnen on Monday.
An ex-finalist of the French Open is already out
On Tuesday it was hardly any better for the women: Laura Siegemund had to cancel her match before the start, Mona Barthel had great difficulties against the French Alice Tubello (No. 323 in the world) at 6: 4, 1: 6 and 6: 2 and Tamara Korpatsch, after all number nine on the seed list, lost out to Swede Mirjam Börklund (5:7, 4:6).
For other favorites, too, the hope of making the leap into the main draw of the French Open ended surprisingly early: The Italian Lucrezia Stefanini (number 2 on the seeding list) had no chance against the Polish Maja Chwalinska (2: 6, 1: 6) and with Sofia Kenin out In the USA, even the 2020 Australian Open winner, who was in the final in Rolland Garros that same year, failed in the first round of qualification.