French Open: De Minaur, Fritz advance to second round; Navone too wins first-round clash

PARIS: Australian Alex de Minaur, American Taylor Fritz, Mariano Navone, and Jaume Munar won their respective men’s singles matches and reached the second round of the French Open 2024 in the French capital on Tuesday.

Alex de Minaur kick-started his Roland Garros campaign in style, despite a few hours of rain interruption which did not do anything to prevent him from advancing on Tuesday afternoon. After play finally got underway on Court Simonne-Mathieu in around afternoon, the 11th-seeded Australian raced past #NextGenATP Alex Michelsen 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 to seal his second-round spot at the clay-court major.

De Minaur converted eight of 13 break points he earned, according to Infosys Stats, to advance to face Jaume Munar or Roberto Bautista Agut. De Minaur saved two break points in the opening game of the match but barely looked back from then on, ultimately wrapping victory in just one hour and 48 minutes against Roland Garros debutant Michelsen.

With his win, the No. 11 in the ATP Rankings avenged his loss to Michelsen in February in Los Cabos and tied the pair’s ATP head-to-head series at 1-1.

Taylor Fritz too reached the second round, taking the tally of Americans in the second round to six by rallying past Federico Coria 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-1. The 12th seed put together an impressive display full of clean baseline hitting to down Argentina’s Coria in two hours, and 28 minutes on Court 9.

Navone will take on Tomas Machac in the second round. The Geneva finalist overcame Nuno Borges 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-3 for his maiden Roland Garros win.

Spaniard Jaume Munar defeated Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 while 28th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina fought back from defeat in the first set to beat Arthur Cazaux of France 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.