Roland Garros. Zavatskaya loses to Bertens in the opening match

Katarina Zavatskaya is defeated in a duel against the fifth racket of the tournament.

Roland Garros – Grand Slam
Paris, France • September 21 – October 11 • clay • $ 19,694,806
Reigning Champion: Ashley Barty (Australia)
Tournament table: ranking • singles

First circle
Katarina Zavatskaya (Ukraine) – Kiki Bertens (Netherlands, 5) 6-2, 2-6, 0-6

The fight lasted 2 hours and 5 minutes. Zavatskaya converted 5 of 12 break points, and Bertens scored 8 of 13. From a score of 2-4 in the second set, the Ukrainian woman failed to win a single game: during the game, Katarina had to ask her coach for a Extra racket, as all their rackets had broken strings. …

A bit strange and unfortunate scenes in Lenglen. Katarina Zavatska, who was playing a very good match against Kiki Bertens, broke numerous strings and ran out of rackets. Her coach then seemed to give her one of her own (babolat, not yonex). She lost the decisive 6-0. # RG20 pic.twitter.com/H5ZjWYT04M

– The tennis podcast (@TennisPodcast) September 28, 2020

Zavatska is crying because all her rackets have broken strings. # RG20 pic.twitter.com/pu0O97Nmy2

– Ashish 🎾🎥 (@tennis_gifs) September 28, 2020

For the 20-year-old Ukrainian, this was the first fight in her career against an opponent in the top 10 ratings. Zavatskaya previously met tennis players in the top twenty twice: last year in Guangzhou she lost to future Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin (WTA 20), and this season she lost at the US Open to Elena Rybakina (WTA 17).

Kiki Bertens came to Roland Garros on a three-game losing streak; Last week in Strasbourg, the Dutch ended her fight against Elena Ostapenko ahead of schedule due to problems with Achilles. In the last two years, Bertens has lost only two matches to an opponent who is not in the top 100 of the ranking: Coco Gauff in Linz in 2019 and in 2018 in the same tournament against Margarita Gasparyan.

For Katharina Zavatskaya, this was the debut match in the main draw at Roland Garros. At the end of August, the Ukrainian held the first fight on the base of the US Open.

Kiki Bertens will play Italy’s Sara Errani in the second round.

Photo: EPA.