French Open Juniors Day 1 Review

An eventful day saw seven of the sixteen seeds crash out of the French Open juniors on the first day of competition, but several of the title favourites progressed after a series of tough first round matches.

The highest seed to be eliminated was America’s third seed, Tornado Alicia Black. She faced the talented young Spaniard, Paula Badosa Gibert, but struggled throughout. Broken six times in eight service games, she won just 40% on her serve and barely made a dent in the serve of the Spaniard as Badosa Gibert moves onto the second round. As mentioned in the pre-tournament preview, Badosa Gibert “is certainly capable of a major upset on her day” and she lived up to that on Day 1.

Fiona Ferro beat 13th seed Olga Fridman to delight the home crowd

While Black’s loss may have been predicted by some, the biggest upset of the day shocked the vast majority of spectators. The Orange Bowl champion, Varvara Flink, was strongly fancied to go far in this event, but was beaten 7-5, 6-2 by Scotland’s Isabelle Wallace on Court 17. Wallace has had a few decent results on clay in the past 12 months, but nothing to suggest that she was capable of this big win.

However, one player that was never in any great danger of an upset was the pre-tournament favourite, Catherine Cartan Bellis. The second seeded American came through a tough match against Katherine Birrell, winning 6-3, 6-3. She had to come from a break down in the second set to complete the straight sets win, but there were few times when you really believed that Bellis was in any danger. A good workout to ease her into this tournament.

Jil Belen Teichmann had a tough opening match against Renata Zarazua, who had a good run to the final at the Banana Bowl earlier in the season. The Swiss player eventually progressed after a 7-5, 6-4 win on Court 16. One player that had a much easier passage to the second round was Darya Kasatkina, who dropped just two games in a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Thailand’s Kamonwan Buayam.

Australia’s Naiktha Bains, who was fancied to do well after her run to the final in Milan, was disappointing in a straight sets defeat to Colombia’s Maria Fernanda Herazo Gonzalez, while Ziyue Sun and Anhelina Kalinina, seeded seventh and ninth respectively, both saw their campaigns come to a premature end with defeats against Simona Heinova and Margot Yerolymos.

There were good results for the French players as Fiona Ferro and Emmanuelle Salas both recorded good wins against Olga Fridman and Evgeniya Levashova, but Oceane Dodin, Estelle Cascino and Tessah Andrianjafitrimo were both eliminated against Wushuang Zheng, Elena Gabriela Ruse and Natalia Vikhlyantseva.

Kristina Schmiedlova was another comfortable winner as she took just 50 minutes to dispose of the American, Katrine Isabel Steffensen, 6-1, 6-2, and the youngest player in the draw, Marketa Vondrousova, was impressive, taking just 53 minutes to dispatch the 14^th seed, Anna Bondar.

However, the most impressive win of the day would come from the American, Usue Maitane Arconada, who needed just 47 minutes to beat Bianca Turati without dropping a single game.

Other winners on Day 1 include Tereza Mihalikova, Katarina Jokic, Akvile Parazinskaite, Rebecca Sramkova, Jana Fett, Lucie Wargnier, Ioana Loredana Rosca and Luisa Stefani.

Results:

Margot Yerolymos beat Anhelina Kalinina (9) 6-3, 7-5

Usue Maitane Arconada beat Bianca Turati 6-0, 6-0

Fiona Ferro beat Olga Fridman (13) 6-2, 6-3

Wushuang Zheng beat Oceane Dodin 6-4, 4-6, 6-4

Elena Gabriela Ruse beat Estelle Cascino 6-1, 6-3

Emannuelle Salas beat Evgeniya Levashova 6-1, 6-7, 6-2

Lucie Wargnier beat Leticia Garcia Vidal 4-6, 6-3, 7-5

Tereza Mihalikova beat Sofia Kenin 6-3, 6-3

Kristina Schmiedlova (11) beat Katrine Isabel Steffensen 6-1, 6-2

Katarina Jokic beat Xiaodi You 7-6, 4-6, 6-3

Simona Heinova beat Ziyue Sun (7) 7-6, 6-4

Akvile Parazinskaite beat Anna Kalinskaya 6-2, 6-0

Paula Badosa Gibert beat Tornado Alicia Black (3) 6-2, 6-1

Rebecca Sramkova beat Dasha Ivanova 6-2, 6-4

Jana Fett beat Ioana Ducu 2-6, 6-3, 6-1

Darya Kasatkina (8) beat Kamonwan Buayam 6-2, 6-0

Marketa Vondrousova beat Anna Bondar (14) 6-2, 6-0

Maria Fernanda Herazo Gonzalez beat Naiktha Bains 7-6, 6-4

Ioana Loredana Rosca beat Priscilla Hon (12) 6-4, 6-7, 6-3

Catherine Cartan Bellis (2) beat Katherine Birrell 6-3, 6-3

Natalia Vikhlyantseva beat Tessah Andrianjafitrimo 6-4, 6-1

Luisa Stefani beat Greetje Minnen 6-4, 6-3

Jil Belen Teichmann (5) beat Renata Zarazua 7-5, 6-4

Isabelle Wallace beat Varvara Flink (6) 7-5, 6-2