French Open: tennis big guns return as Djokovic, Nadal, Raducanu back for Day 4 of Roland Garros
- Overnight, things went as expected for world No 2 Daniil Medvedev, who eased into the second round, sailing past Facundo Bagnis 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 on the back of 35 winners and eight breaks of serve
- No 11 seed Jessica Pegula survived a furious comeback effort from China’s Wang Qiang to reach the second round
The star-studded top half of the men’s bracket moves into the second round on Day 4 at Roland Garros, with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz all on the schedule.
Defending champion Djokovic faces Alex Molcan at Court Suzanne Lenglen, 13-time champion Nadal will close the day in Court Philippe Chatrier in the night session by facing Corentin Moutet, and 19-year-old Alcaraz, who is seeded sixth and leads the tour with four titles in 2022, meets Albert Ramos-Vinolas at Court Simonne-Mathieu.
No 3 seed Alexander Zverev is also due to play, taking on Sebastian Baez in Chatrier in the afternoon. Reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu plays Aliaksandra Sasnovich in round two, while Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 winner at Flushing Meadows, faces Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.
Overnight, things went as expected for world No 2 Daniil Medvedev, who eased into the second round, sailing past Facundo Bagnis 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 on the back of 35 winners and eight breaks of serve.
Medvedev’s clay-court build-up was all but a write-off as he was sidelined for six weeks after a hernia operation, but now looks ahead to a second-round meeting with Serbian Laslo Djere.
“Honestly I’m feeling very good. When I did the surgery, I thought I would not play on clay,” Medvedev admitted.
“But with my physio and doctor, we managed to put me back on track quickly and in the end, I was even able to play last week, a difficult match, but I’m happy to have played at least one match on clay to get ready for Roland Garros and to arrive here in a good shape. I’m at 100 per cent physically and I hope to play well.”