TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2018 20

Serena Williams can win at Williams

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Roland Garros Tsonga ruled out of Roland Garros has not played a match on clay since reaching the final at Roland Garros in 2016 AFP | London

o-Wilfried Tsonga has BBC | London Jlost his race for fitness for Roland Garros after sur- erena Williams can win the Mouratoglou told the WTA website. gery on his left knee, the even though she “She is working extremely hard, 2013 and 2015 French Open S“came back too early” after she is improving in all the areas fast. semi-finalist confirmed yes- giving birth, says her coach Patrick I am very satisfied and confident that terday. Mouratoglou. she will be ready for Roland Garros.” No Frenchman has won The 23-time champion Williams returned to the WTA at Roland Garros since Yan- has not played a match on clay since Tour in March, six months after giv- nick Noah in 1983 and Tson- reaching the final at Roland Garros ing birth, but has struggled to find ga’s two previous semi-final in 2016. top form. runs had given home fans Williams, 36, withdrew from tour- She reached the third round at In- Williams to get “even stronger reason to hope. naments in Madrid and Rome this dian Wells, where she was beaten by than before”, although he admits “Despite all our best ef- month, casting doubt over her par- sister Venus, before falling in the first she was “far from being 100 per forts to be fit in time I am ticipation at the French Open, which round of the Miami Open to Japan’s cent” on her comeback. afraid to say unhappily I’m begins on 27 May. Naomi Osaka. “Serena clearly came back too ruled out of Roland Garros,” “Serena can achieve anything,” Mouratoglou says the goal is for early,” he said. the 33-year-old wrote on Twitter on Monday. Tsonga damaged a me- niscus in February, pulling to give out of the Montpellier tour- nament in the semi-finals, Djokovic blasts into second round Le Mans 24-hours before going under the knife race start in April. over Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. “I worked really hard to Nishikori -- who had lost his try and be fit in time, but • two matches on clay in Spain in it wasn’t enough,” Tsonga takes 55 minutes to the previous two weeks -- need- said in a video posted on his oust Dolgopolov 6-1, ed 1hr 48min to hand Lopez his Twitter account. 6-3 on the red clay sixth defeat in seven trips to the Current champion and of the Foro Italico Italian capital. 10-time winner Rafael Nad- “It wasn’t easy match. It was al is red-hot favourite to win windy so conditions were tough again in 2018 with Domi- Japan’s for both of us,” said 24th-ranked nic Thiem, Novak Djokovic beats• Feliciano Nishikori, who hit 18 winners and Alexander Zverev all Lopez 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to counter the seven aces fired expected to make a run at down by Lopez. the May 27 to June 10 cham- Nishikori arrived in Rome af- pionship. AFP | Rome ter losing his two matches on Thiem beat Nadal in the clay in Spain -- retiring in Bar- Madrid quarters last week ovak Djokovic got off to celona due to a recurring wrist and while the Austrian was Na winning start in his bid injury problem before losing outplayed by rising German for a fifth ATP Italian Open title his opening-round in Madrid star Zverev in the final, the yesterday with a straight sets to Djokovic. pair are seen as the most win over Ukraine’s Alexandr “He used a lot of slice and likely way to stop Nadal Dolgopolov. great serves, but I think I han- Novak Djokovic Rafael Nadal winning an 11th title. In The 11th-seeded Serb, who dled his slice well,” continued 2018 there is a total purse of has reached eight of the last ten Nishikori who won his last title 39 million euros ($46.7m), finals in Rome and won four ranking since October 2006. plays either in Memphis in February 2016. with 2.2 million euros going -- took 55 minutes to oust Dol- The 12-time Grand Slam win- or Filippo Baldi two qualifiers “The first set could have gone AFP | London to the singles champions. gopolov 6-1, 6-3 on the red clay ner broke 54th-ranked Dolgo- before a potential third round both ways, luckily I got it and is favourite of the Foro Italico. polov three times in the open- meeting with American eighth after that, I was more confident ennis star Rafael Na- for the women’s tournament Former world number one ing set, with another break in seed . and I was playing better tennis.” Tdal will give the offi - while 36-year-old American Djokovic has slipped six places the second helping him wrap Earlier Japan’s Kei Nishiko- Nishikori took a one-set lead cial start to next month’s star Serena Williams is set to 18th after his second round up the match. Djokovic, who ri eased into the men’s second after a first set-tiebreak that fea- 24-hours of Le Mans endur- to play nine months. defeat in Madrid, his lowest last won in Rome in 2015, next round with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 win tured nine mini-breaks. ance race, organisers said yesterday. The 16-time Grand Slam winner, currently the world number two behind long- time rival , Konta beats Rybarikova in the first round of will give the start for the 86th edition of the histor- ic endurance race at 3pm Italian Open to register her second win on June 16, organisers ACO said. ACO president Pierre Fil- defeats Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4 6-3 in one hour and 48 minutes in Rome lon said Nadal’s status as “an exceptional figure in his BBC | Rome Open on Saturday. discipline” aligned with his Despite several opportuni- characteristics of “talent, ritain’s Johanna Konta beat ties for Konta, it was Rybarikova fair-play, pugnacity, com- BMagdalena Rybarikova in who broke first in the seventh petitiveness and strategic the first round of the Italian game of the first set. intelligence” meant that he Open to register her second win Konta cancelled out the defi- exhibits “the fundamental in eight days over the Slovak. cit straight away and went on traits” of endurance racing. Konta, ranked 22nd in the to close out the set, hitting 19 “Our race will be repre- world, beat the 16th seed 6-4 winners to Rybarikova’s nine. sented by an immensely 6-3 in one hour and 48 minutes In the second set, both play- prestigious man,” added in Rome. ers struggled to hold serve at Fillon of the 10-time Roland She previously beat Rybarik- first and Rybarikova won three Garros champion. ova in the first round of the Ma- straight games to break Konta Nadal added: “I can’t wait drid Open, before being knocked and take a 3-2 lead. to discover this spectacular out by Bernarda Pera. The Briton forced her way new discipline.” The 26-year-old will play back into the set, a punchy In 2014, Nadal’s compa- either Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei forehand ending Rybarikova’s triot and Formula One star or Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus advantage, before saving three Fernando Alonso gave the next. break points in a lengthy game Le Mans start, but this year British number one Konta had to take the lead. will be starting on the grid been set to play Petra Kvitova, Despite 40 unforced errors to as race favourite in his Toy- but the Czech withdrew follow- Rybarikova’s 24, Konta was able ota TS050 Hybrid. ing her victory in the Madrid to hold on and secure victory. Johanna Konta