Women’s seeds tumble at Roland Garros 1st round

PARIS: Sixth seed Ons Jabeur suffered a surprise first-round defeat by Magda Linette on the opening day of the French Open here.

The Tunisian arrived at Roland Garros in strong claycourt form but fell 6-3, 6-7(4), 5-7 to the 52nd-ranked Pole. Jabeur was among the favourites for the title, having reached three clay-court finals in the build-up to Paris.

Former champion Garbine Muguruza also fell to the ever-dangerous Kaia Kanepi but Sloane Stephens advanced. Jabeur, 27, had won 17 claycourt matches in the weeks before the French Open and became the first African to win a WTA 1,000 event at the Madrid Open.

She is a player known for reacting well under pressure, but cut a frustrated figure as the match progressed.

The two traded breaks in the opening set and Linette faltered when serving at 5-3 down to hand Jabeur the opener. However, Jabeur missed four break-point chances in the second set and looked the less confident of the two players as Linette forced a decider.

A tough final set saw both players break, with Jabeur having to dig deep to save two break points at 4-3, but Linette kept the pressure on.

Serving to stay in the match, the Tunisian squandered a 40-0 lead and double-faulted to hand Linette match point. Linette converted it and raised her arms in triumph as she notched the third top-10 win of her career.

On the men’s side, Canadian ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime came back from two sets down against qualifier Juan Pablo Varillas in his French Open firstround match. The 21-yearold survived a huge scare on Philippe Chatrier after Peruvian

World Number 122 Varillas made a dream start on his Grand Slam debut.

Auger-Aliassime eventually prevailed 2-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 to end his wait for a main-draw victory at Roland Garros. Having reached his first major quarter-final at Wimbledon last summer, the Canadian made the US Open semi-finals before a run to the last eight at the Australian Open in January.