At 38 years old, Ivo Karlovic, is the oldest player in the Men’s draw at the French Open. At 18 years old, Greek qualifier Stefanos Tsitsipas is one of the youngest players in the Men’s draw at the French Open. On the opening day at Roland-Garros the two met on Court 3 and it was the veteran getting past the youngster in straight sets 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, 6-4.
In a match which lasted 2 hours and 14 mins, Karlovic, seeded 23rd this year, was in relative control throughout. His big serve, arguably the best in the game, was in fine form. He won 84% of his points on serve including ten aces and he was only broken once that coming in the third set while up 4-1.
“It was difficult first of all. I didn’t know anything about him, so I was trying to look around a little bit on the internet” Karlovic said about his young opponent. “I didn’t really know what to expect.”
Tsitsipas, on the other hand, struggled with his serve. His first serve percentage was just 51% and he double faulted six times. One of those doubles giving Karlovic the second set, the other coming on match point.
Tsitsipas, the former top junior player in the world, did hold his own in his first Grand Slam appearance as a professional. He had 33 winners in the match and he won 14 of 20 points when he came to the net.
It was a good result for Karlovic who has struggled on tour in 2017. Before his win today, he had won just seven of his 16 matches this year. The French Open has never been too kind to the 6’11 native of Croatia either. He has never been past the third round in Paris.
“It was a really difficult match. It was here and there. Couple of points that I won with my experience maybe, or I don’t know. But, yeah, in the end, I’m pretty happy that I got through.” He said.
Karlovic will next play Horacio Zeballos in the Second Round.
Dimitrov marches on
Gregor Dimitrov also got off to a good start at the French Open. The 11th seeded Bulgarian converted all six of his break point chances and defeated crowd favourite Stephane Robert 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 on Philippe-Chatrier Court.
Despite struggling with his first serve (just 54%), Dimitrov was solid from the baseline hitting several winners with his trademark backhand. However, he did have 32 unforced errors in the match, a number he will have to cut down on if he hopes to advance further into the tournament.
“I’m so happy. It’s good.” Dimitrov said following his win. “It’s always good to win that first match, especially at any Slam, but here for the past three years I haven’t been able to win a match.”
“So just today was a good day for me to start a good campaign. I like my chances out here. I like the clay. So I just want to make sure that I’m doing the right things in order to win every round.”
Dimitrov has never had much success at Roland-Garros. He had lost in the first round in the past three years including a five set loss to Viktor Troicki last year and a 2014 opening round defeat to Karlovic.
