Icon: enlarge
Angelique Kerber (left) loses against Kaja Juvan
Photo: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images
For Angelique Kerber, the French Open in Paris ended after the first match, as in the previous year.
Kerber lost 3: 6, 3: 6 on court 14 against the Slovenian Kaja Juvan, who was in 103rd position in the world rankings.
Before that, the two players had to wait many hours for the match to start.
The Italian Lorenzo Giustino and Corentin Moutet (France) had an epic duel.
The first round game lasted a total of 6:05 hours before Giustino used the match point to win 0: 6, 7: 6 (9: 7), 7: 6 (7: 3), 2: 6, 18:16.
It was the second longest match in the history of Roland Garros since 1968. Only the French duel 2004 between Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement, which Santoro won in the last round with 16:14, lasted even longer with 6:33 hours.
The longest game in the history of the Grand Slam was played by Nicolas Mahut and John Isner at Wimbledon in 2010, after more than eleven hours of play, Isner had won the last set 70:68.
Kerber, who came to Paris on clay with virtually no match practice due to her first round defeat in Rome, had problems against Juvan from the start and never found her game.
Her serve didn't come well enough and while Juvan varied a lot, Kerber made a total of 30 slight errors.
Icon: The mirror
krä / sid
