Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Paris, May 28
What Venus Williams would have given for a dash of deja-vu in Paris on Sunday.
The same Grand Slam tournament, the same opening round, the same opponent as last year, but at Roland Garros this year the American slumped out 6-4 7-5 to China’s Wang Qiang. The loss marked the first time 2002 runner-up Williams has lost her opening match here since 2001, and the only time in her career she has lost consecutive Grand Slam opening round matches.
“There really are no perfect days in tennis, so…” the 37-year-old mused enigmatically. “At this point I have just got to look forward. I just want to be my best, that is all… nobody plans on this.”
If Sunday’s result marked a low point for Venus, it represented the best win of Wang’s career, and one for which she was good value.
Flustered champion
A flustered Jelena Ostapenko became only the sixth female Grand Slam champion to fall at the first hurdle of her title defence when she lost to Kateryna Kozlova. Never at ease on the Roland Garros main show court, the world No. 5 slumped to a 7-5 6-3 defeat to a Ukrainian opponent who had won both the pair’s previous meetings. Not since Anastasia Myskina went down in the opening round in 2005 has the French Open lost its women’s champion so early, and the 20-year-old slipped off court, her head bowed, ruing what she called a “terrible day”.
Ostapenko joins Myskina, Steffi Graf, Jennifer Capriati, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Angelique Kerber who all lost as Slam champions on the first run of their defences.
