Sunday, May 24, 2015

French Open Day 1: Johnson ousts seed in five sets

Steve Johnson beat 26th-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez
in five sets in the first round of the French Open.
2013 photo by Paul Bauman
   Match of the day -- Steve Johnson of Redondo Beach in the Los Angeles area ousted 26th-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (1), 3-6, 6-3.
   Upset of the day -- No. 24 Peng Shuai, a semifinalist at last year's U.S. Open, retired with a back injury while trailing Polona Hercog of Slovenia 6-0, 2-0.
   Notable -- No. 5 Kei Nishikori and No. 8 Stan Wawrinka, both of whom fell in the opening round last year, won in straight sets.
   Men's seeded winners -- No. 2 Roger Federer, No. 5 Kei Nishikori, No. 8 Stan Wawrinka, No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 19 Roberto Bautista Agut, No. 22 Philipp Kohlschreiber, No. 24 Ernests Gulbis.
   Men's seeded losers -- No. 25 Ivo Karlovic, No. 26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
   Women's seeded winners -- No. 3 Simona Halep, No. 7 Ana Ivanovic, No. 9 Ekaterina Makarova, No. 13 Lucie Safarova, No. 21 Garbine Muguruza, No. 28 Flavia Pennetta.
   Women's seeded losers -- No. 24 Peng Shuai, No. 31 Caroline Garcia.
   Stars and stripes -- Americans went 1-2. In addition to Johnson's victory, 19-year-old wild card Louisa Chirico lost to ninth-seeded Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-4, 6-2, and 5-foot-2 (1.57-meter) Lauren Davis fell to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
   Fast fact -- Six-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Ivo Karlovic, 36, of Croatia lost in the first round at Roland Garros for the fifth time in his last six appearances. He fell to Cyprus' Marcos Baghdatis, the 2006 Australian Open runner-up, 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4.
   Northern California connection -- Two Aptos Challenger champions won: Johnson (2012) and Baghdatis (2014).
   Quote -- Federer, on a spectator who got on Center Court to snap selfies with him: "That should never happen on the Philippe Chatrier Court. I'm not happy about it. Obviously not (for) one second (am I) happy about it."

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