French Open

2nd seed Pliskova beats Sherif

Nadal, Serena, Thiem advance as Giustino wins 2nd longest match

September 30, 2020 00:00:00

Karolina Pliskova celebrating after winning against Egypt's Mayar Sherif in her first-round match on Tuesday — AP

PARIS (Agencies): Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova managed to rein in her errors and found a way past battling Egyptian qualifier MayarSherif with a 6-7(9) 6-2 6-4 victory in the opening round of the French Open on Tuesday.

Pliskova had 27 unforced errors and hit six double faults in the first set under the open roof of Court Philippe Chatrier as the 24-year-old Sherif, making her Grand Slam main draw debut, saved eight setpoints to win the opener in the tiebreaker.

Former world number one Pliskova improved drastically in the second to level the match with three breaks of her opponent's service games and a crucial break in the seventh game of the decider proved enough.

Pliskova, who retired in the final in Rome with injury before coming to Paris, sealed the match with an ace and will next meet 2017 champion JelenaOstapenko, who earlier defeated American Madison Brengle 6-2 6-1.

Earlier, defending French Open champion Rafael Nadal progressed to the second round of the French Open after seeing off EgorGerasimov in Paris on Monday.

Nadal, whose 12 titles at Roland Garros are more than any player has ever won at a single Grand Slam, required just over two hours on Court Philippe-Chatrier to defeat his Belarusian opponent 6-4 6-4 6-2.

Meanwhile, last year's defeated finalist Dominic Thiem - who was also runner-up to Nadal at the French Open in 2018 - completed an impressive straight-sets win over Marin Cilic.

Thiem, who lifted his maiden major trophy earlier this month at the US Open, beat fellow Slam champion Cilic 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and six minutes - spending just one minute longer on court than Spaniard Nadal.

In the women's draw, Serena Williams also got up and running with a straight-sets win, defeating fellow American Kristie Ahn 7-6 (2) 6-0.

Meanwhile, it seemed a contest that would never end, but after six hours and five minutes - the second longest in Roland Garros history - qualifier Lorenzo Giustino finally saw off Frenchman CorentinMoutet in their French Open epic.