On a day that Rafael Nadal played perhaps his final match in a French Open, the Aussie drought continued in heartbreaking fashion in Paris.
Max Purcell was unable to convert six match points when beaten in a deciding super tiebreaker, while Dasha Saville was surging back into her opening round match when rain intervened at an inopportune time.
The drought will break on Tuesday, weather permitting, when Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alexei Popyrin clash. Alex de Minaur is also in action against Alex Michelsen while Adam Walton makes his French Open debut.
In other action, defending champion Novak Djokovic will feature in the night session amid questions surrounding his form and fitness.
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FRUSTRATED AUSSIE DECLARES ‘TENNIS IS S***’ AFTER LETTING BIG CHANCE SLIDE
Max Purcell was blunt in his assessment of his chosen profession after failing to convert six match points when beaten 2-6 2-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (10) by German debutant Henri Squire in 3hr 21min.
“Tennis is s***,” the former Wimbledon doubles champion said.
The 94th ranked Sydneysider had reason to be disappointed. After an especially slow start, the right-handed worked back into the match and had ample opportunities in the fifth set.
He served for the match twice but was driven to the point of madness when ultimately opting to serve an underarm serve on the fifth of his match points. In the tiebreaker, he fought back from a 7-9 deficit to hold another match point, but that too went begging.
Regrets? Purcell had a few, but none related to his approach to match points, including the decision to serve underarm when trying to book a spot in the second round.
“No regrets – hindsight’s a shit thing, isn’t it?” he said.
“(I will) just take the positives and learn from them. I hate living in the past. I just try to semi-forget about it and take the positives. I could have could have been out of there in three sets instead of five, so it’s nice to get some extra court time.
“I played so many worse points throughout that match and won those points compared to how I played some of those match points. So I can’t go out there and say, like, I played seven shit points to get all match points. I played some shit points and he still gave them to me. “So, for me, there’s no such thing as a mistake. Everything I’ve learned and I’ve done up to that point is why I’ve made that decision (to serve underarm). So there’s no wrong decisions. It’s just the way the cookie crumbles.”
A 27-YEAR LOW POINT FOR AUSSIE WOMEN IN FRANCE BUT SAVILLE POINTS TO BRIGHTER FUTURE
The exit of Daria Saville on Monday brought about an alarming moment in Australian tennis, with the 2024 edition of Roland Garros serving as the first time this century the nation has failed to have a woman reach at least the second round in Paris.
The last time it occurred was in 1997 when Rachel McQuillan and Annabel Ellwood were the Australian hopefuls in action.
But Saville, who had good reason to be cursing the fickle French weather after falling to 12th seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini 6-3 6-4, said there are reasons for the low point, noting the injuries that she, Ajla Tomljanovic and Storm Hunter have been battling.
Five year after Ash Barty claimed the Roland Garros title, Saville is confident in the future of Australian tennis.
She cited teenager Taylah Preston and Olivia Gadecki, who reached the third round in qualifying, as emerging talents to look out for and is confident the performances will be stronger at Wimbledon.
“Well, Ajla and I are coming back from injuries (and) Storm is injured. Ajla and I haven’t even been back for even a year. So it’s certainly not great, but it’s the circumstances,” she said.
“Taylah had the match on her racquet (in qualifying) and she’s so young. She’s going to gain all that experience and she’s going to get there. (It is the) same with Olivia. She’s was up a set in the 3rd Rd of the quallies and it’s just a bit of inexperience, a bit of nerves, but everyone has to start somewhere.
“I think we can all help each other. We’ll try to stick together. So I think we’ll definitely have a rising star, don’t worry about that.”
Having fallen behind 6-3 5-1 against Paolini, the Melburnian finally found her best form to surge back into the match against an Italian she has beaten in the past.
But rain struck at an inopportune time after Saville had reeled off three straight games, snapping her momentum and allowing the in-form Italian precious time to regain her nerve.
When play resumed after a break of about an hour, Paolini was able to hold serve to love to close out the match, with Saville making four consecutive unforced errors from the forehand wing.
Despite the defeat, Saville said she can take confidence from the tournament leading into Wimbledon at the start of July.
“I think I’ve improved a ton from where I was in Madrid and Rome,” she said.
“I’ve just lost to a tough opponent and it’s easy to get just sad and upset and think ‘Oh well. Maybe I can’t do this’. But I’m not there yet. I don’t feel that way. I still feel encouraged for Wimbledon coming up.”
PHONES ON MUTE AS AUSSIE MATES PUT FRIENDSHIP ON PAUSE
Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alexei Popyrin have set their phones to silent and effectively muted each other ahead of their opening round clash at Roland Garros on Tuesday.
The powerful Australians are Davis Cup teammates, good friends and share the same agent, but the battle lines have been drawn ahead of what is an important match for both.
“I have played Pop a couple of times and he is one of my better mates on tour. We are Davis Cup teammates and have the same agent, so it is pretty funny, but it is what it is,” Kokkinakis said.
“We have both gone silent, but we will talk some rubbish to each other when we are here. We are both close mates and we practise a lot together. It is tricky, but it should be a fun one.”
Popyrin, a boys champion at Roland Garros in 2017, is younger and more highly-ranked than his rival. But he is yet to beat the South Australian, having fallen to him twice last year on hard courts.
Kokkinakis edged him 6-0 6-7 7-5 in his hometown of Adelaide last January and then defeated him 6-3 7-6 in a Challenger tournament in Bahrain.
Before those matches, Popyrin was matey with Kokkinakis. But he has learned his lesson … at least until they shake hands after tomorrow’s match.
“Before I (used) to text him. This time I am going to stay silent. We will see if that gives me a better chance,” he said.
Kokkinakis and Popyrin, who both possess big serves and powerful forehands, are atypical to their compatriots in that both feel at home when playing on clay.
The former defeated 2015 Roland Garros champion Stan Wawrinka in Paris last year and has produced his best results at major level in the French Open.
Popyrin, meanwhile, is an ATP Tour titleist on clay and snared a win over top Russian Andrey Rublev at the Monte Carlo Masters early in the European swing.
“I grew up on it, you could say. I moved to Spain early in my career and developed my clay court game, my clay court movement there. So I think a lot of it has to do with that,” Popyrin told Stan Sports.
“And then playing tournaments on clay over the years, getting used to the clay and getting used to the surface over the years, it is a slower surface, so it gives me a little bit more time and I can move the ball and play the way I want to.”
Popyrin has a realistic chance of qualifying for the Olympics team and would bolster his chances of a return to Roland Garros in a couple of months time with a strong run.
Kokkinakis reached the third round last year and needs to match those deeds in order to stay in the top 100, with his ranking currently at 114 on a live basis.
He defeated another compatriot Rinky Hijikata in Bordeaux last week and, despite branding himself “Bambi on ice” after slipping and sliding on the surface, is looking forward to the challenge.
“It is almost a bit easier if you don’t like someone, because then you can go to war and you don’t care and it is what it is,” he said.
“You have to put everything out there but it is (about) respect at the end of the day.”