Naomi Osaka, who withdrew from last year's French Open citing struggles with her mental health, beaten by Amanda Anisimova; Osaka says she is 'leaning towards not playing' at Wimbledon based on the current situation; defending champion Barbora Krejcikova is knocked out as Iga Swiatek wins
Tuesday 24 May 2022 12:03, UK
Naomi Osaka has suffered a first-round defeat to Amanda Anisimova at the French Open and cast doubt on whether she will play Wimbledon next month.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka, who withdrew from last year's tournament citing struggles with her mental health, was beaten in straight sets, 7-5 6-4, by 27th seed Anisimova.
The 20-year-old had also beaten Osaka in the third round of this year's Australian Open and is a former French Open semi-finalist in 2019.
"I'm not sure why, but I feel like if I play Wimbledon without points, it's more like an exhibition"
The first three games all went against serve in a tense start but Anisimova held to go 3-1 ahead.
A backhand error by Anisimova allowed Osaka to level for 3-3, but a double fault in the 11th game allowed Anisimova to move 6-5 up and she held serve to love to take the set.
Anisimova broke decisively for 4-3 in the second set as Osaka again double faulted game.
After a couple of match points went begging, Anisimova finished it off with a stunning backhand winner down the line.
Osaka withdrew from the tournament in 2021 after boycotting post-match media duties for mental health reasons.
Next up for Anisimova is world No 100 Donna Vekic in the second round.
Osaka said she was not sure if she would play on grass this season, after the sport's authorities stripped Wimbledon of its ranking points over the tournament's decision to exclude players from Russia and Belarus over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
"I would say like the decision is kind of affecting, like, my mentality going into grass, like I'm not 100 per cent sure if I'm going to go there," she told a news conference after her loss.
"I would love to go just to get some experience on the grass court, but like at the same time, for me, it's kind of like - I don't want to say pointless, no pun intended, but I'm the type of player that gets motivated by... seeing my ranking go up.
"I think the intention was really good, but the execution is kind of all over the place."
She added: "I'm not sure why, but I feel like if I play Wimbledon without points, it's more like an exhibition.
"I know this isn't true, right? But my brain just feels that way. Whenever I think something is like an exhibition, I just can't go at it 100 per cent.
"I'm leaning more towards not playing given the current circumstances."
Czech Barbora Krejcikova was sent crashing out by French teenager Diane Parry.
Krejcikova, the second seed, was playing her first match since Doha in February after struggling with an elbow injury, looked rusty and made 45 unforced errors against 97th-ranked Parry.
All looked well when she raced into a 6-1 2-0 lead but Parry, 19, reeled off six straight games to tie the match and eventually ran out 1-6 6-2 6-3 winner.
"It's a dream for me. It was always a dream to play on this court with the French crowd to support me," Parry said during an interview on court.
"They clearly pushed me to victory today. I'm the happiest person right now. It's never easy to start on this kind of court against the defending champion, you can get a bit tight, which happened in the first set but then I managed to relax."
Iga Swiatek, the hot favourite for the women's title, made it 29 consecutive match wins after dispatching Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko, who is ranked 119th in the world.
The world No 1 from Poland wrapped up a 6-2 6-0 victory in 54 minutes under the Court Philippe Chatrier roof.
"I just want to keep going. I am aware that someday my streak may stop," Swiatek said on court. "Basically I am just working every day to be 100 per cent focused on my tennis, not on stats or not on some numbers.
"Just playing tennis and focusing on my game and being kind of in a bubble. That's going to help me be consistent. That's what I've been doing the past weeks and I'm going to continue doing that here."
Britain's Harriet Dart narrowly avoided a dreaded double-bagel for the second time at a Grand Slam as she lost 6-0 6-2 to Italy's Martina Trevisan in the first round of the French Open.
The 25-year-old failed to win a game in a first-round defeat by Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open in 2019.
Dart must have feared a repeat at 6-0 3-0 down, but she managed to get a couple of games on the board before her early exit from the tournament was finally confirmed.
She can console herself with almost £53,000 in prize money for an hour and 25 minutes of work.
Heather Watson fared little better, going down in straight sets to Elsa Jacquemot of France.
The 30-year-old from Guernsey was a break up in the second set but still slipped to a 6-3 6-3 defeat.
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