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A pitiful tournament for Great Britain’s singles players in the French Open Championship ended on Tuesday night as heavy defeats for Katie Boulter and Dan Evans meant British players failed to win a singles match in Paris for the first time since 2020.
Shortly after Evans was outclassed 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 by 13th seed Holger Ruhn in their hotly contested first-round match, Katie Boulter put herself in position to record a stellar win against the former world No.2 Paula Badosa before narrowly losing 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 in an excellent battle on Tuesday night. With their losses, British players in the men’s and women’s singles draws finished 0-6 at this year’s French Open.
“Honestly, I can’t speak for the others,” Boulter said. “I can only speak for myself and I’ve worked so hard to be in this position and I’ve just lost the best margins. At the end of the day, I did my best and I will continue to do my best and put my heart on the line in every single game I can play.”
It is also only the fourth time in the 21st century that a British player has failed to reach the second round of the French Open. “I think the tournament was a little tough,” Evans said. “I think we’re actually in the best place we’ve been with clay in a long time. I think Draper will win a lot of games here, anywhere. I just think the tournament isn’t great. That’s just how it’s made up. We have a lot of doubles players though.”
After his defeat, which dropped him to 3-13 in the ATP this year, Evans described himself as “fed up with the refs, flat point” after a second refereeing dispute in as many tournaments following a refereeing error during his match against Fabio Fognini in Rome.
This time, Rune and umpire Jaume Campistol argued with Evans as he led 4-2, 15-15 on his serve in the third set. Evans lost the next three points, allowing Roone to immediately break, and he lost four straight games to lose the match.
“The match was going great and then, damn it, it just stopped in the middle and I don’t understand what’s up with the ref…but anyway, that’s not why I lost and that’s just part of the problem, part of the problem, but “I’ll be back at work tomorrow,” Evans said. “Overall, the refereeing is good. Clay is a difficult surface. But definitely having a conversation on someone else’s serve, you don’t see that in any other sport. In rugby they get 10 meters or whatever, squash you’re not allowed, it’s not a fairy tale. We just sit and talk. We have seen many cases of this.
Evans will remain in Paris to join Andy Murray in the doubles as the first non-French pair to receive a men’s doubles wildcard in 20 years, while Boulter will be paired with Heather Watson as they face Chan Hao-ching and Veronica Kudermetova on Wednesday today.
Roland Garros had to wave a third emotional goodbye in three days after Alizee Cornet lost her first-round match. Sales of handkerchiefs must have skyrocketed in Paris after that Murray’s departure on Sunday and beyond farewell to 14-time champion Rafael Nadal 24 hours later. Popular French player Cornet announced last month that she would retire after this year’s home tournament.
The 34-year-old former world number 11, who twice reached the fourth round at Roland Garros, was given a wild card and a place on Court Philippe Chatrier for what she described as “the last dance”. She dropped out of her 20th French Open and 72nd Grand Slam appearance with a 6-2, 6-1 defeat to seventh seed Zheng Qinwen.
Cornet, who played her first French Open at 15, said: “It was a difficult day with a lot of emotions. This is a page of 20 years that I am turning and going to a new chapter in my life. I wish I could have played better, but I gave my best to this sport.”
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Elsewhere, Casper Ruud and Aryna Sabalenka shone brightly on a cold, rainy day in Paris as they moved into the second round with dominant wins, but Roland Garros viewers were largely hungry for action off the show courts.
With the weather preventing any chance of play on the outer courts before 16:00 local time, proceedings were confined to the two main show courts – Philippe Chatrier and Suzanne Lenglen – both of which have retractable roofs.
Two-time runner-up Ruud defeated Brazilian qualifier Felipe Alves 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in a renewed bid for a first Grand Slam title in Paris after the disappointments of the previous two years.
Sabalenka was just as quick as last year’s semi-finalist, who is eyeing a second major of the season after her successful Australian Open defense in January, beating Russian teenager Erika Andreeva in 68 minutes 6-1, 6-2.
Fourth seed Elena Rybakina overcame an early wobble to cruise past Great Minnen 6-2, 6-3 earlier in the day, showing no signs of the illness that has hampered her preparations for the second major of the year.
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