Only took one day to guarantee 1st-time French Open finalist
PARIS — A year after stunning the tennis world by winning the French Open for her initial tour-level title, Jelena Ostapenko is again in rare company: a first-round loser as the defending champion at a Grand Slam tournament.
Something even more unusual happened at Roland Garros, too: Venus Williams was beaten in her opening match at a second consecutive major, the only time in her lengthy, distinguished career she’s had such early back-to-back exits.
All in all, it was quite a Day 1 at the only Grand Slam site that gets things started on a Sunday. There already is certain to be at least one first-time French Open finalist, because 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone and 2012 runner-up Sara Errani joined 2017 champ Ostapenko and 2002 runner-up Williams on the way out of the bottom half of the draw.
Ostapenko’s high-risk game produced far fewer rewards than problems, with 48 unforced errors to only 22 winners as she bowed out to 67th-ranked Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine 7-5, 6-3 at Court Philippe Chatrier. Over at Court Suzanne Lenglen, things went similarly for Williams, a seven-time major champion, who had 21 more unforced errors than her opponent in a 6-4, 7-5 loss to 85th-ranked Wang Qiang of China.