Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz acquired the Paris Olympics tennis competitors began with first-round victories Saturday underneath closed roofs at Roland Garros, the location of their French Open titles lower than two months in the past.

Novak Djokovic additionally gained in straight units as he, like Swiatek and Alcaraz, opened a bid for a primary Olympic gold medal. Djokovic’s second-round opponent might be longtime rival Rafael Nadal, who was scheduled to play his opening singles match Sunday.

Nadal, the Spaniard who gained a file 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles on the French Open and owns two Summer time Video games golds, was a shock torch service in the course of the rain-soaked opening ceremony alongside the Seine River on Friday night time and was slated to compete alongside Alcaraz in doubles on Saturday night time.

The No. 1-ranked Swiatek claimed 4 of her 5 profession main championships in Paris and grabbed the final 4 video games to beat Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu 6-2, 7-5, whereas reigning French Open and Wimbledon champ Alcaraz defeated Lebanon’s Hady Habib 6-3, 6-1.

Serbia’s Djokovic, who’s seeded No. 1 within the males’s subject after Jannik Sinner pulled out with tonsillitis, wanted lower than an hour to dismiss Australia’s Matthew Ebden — a doubles participant collaborating in a tour-level singles match for the primary time in two years. Ebden acquired into the singles bracket as a result of he was in Paris to play doubles and thus obtainable when Sixteenth-ranked Holger Rune of Denmark withdrew with an injured wrist.

Ebden’s lone recreation got here after he was already down 6-0, 4-0 — and he celebrated by pulling the entrance of his yellow shirt over his head and baring his chest to roars from the flag-dotted crowd.

Poland’s Swiatek, who gained a 3rd consecutive championship at Courtroom Philippe Chatrier simply seven weeks in the past, acquired damaged in that very same stadium to path 5-3 within the second set earlier than getting again to her common clay-court experience. She wrapped up the victory by breaking at love when Begu double-faulted on the final level.

Rain disrupts schedule

Day 1 of tennis started with showers which may have contributed to gradual strains for umbrella-toting spectators on the facility’s safety checks close to entrances. All the matches on the ten courts with out retractable roofs have been in the end cancelled for the day.

It is a good factor the French tennis federation constructed a pair of movable covers just lately: 15,000-capacity Chatrier added one in 2020, and the second-largest area, 10,000-capacity Courtroom Suzanne Lenglen, has one as of this 12 months.

Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, who was the runner-up to Swiatek on the French Open in June and to Barbora Krejcikova at Wimbledon two weeks in the past, was the primary tennis participant to win a match at these Summer time Video games, eliminating Romania’s Ana Bogdan 7-5, 6-3 at Lenglen.

Canada’s tennis stars have been among the many gamers affected by the cancellations.

Laval, Que., native Leylah Fernandez, the Sixteenth seed, was scheduled to play Czech participant “Karolina Muchova, a 2023 French Open finalist, on Saturday. Muchova, ranked twenty ninth on this planet, gained their solely earlier encounter in 2022 on exhausting courts in Miami.

Bianca Andreescu, of Mississauga, Ont., was set to face Denmark’s Clara Tauson in her opening match.

Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, the thirteenth seed, was additionally set to begin his marketing campaign in opposition to American Marcos Giron, ranked thirty eighth.

Fernandez and Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski additionally noticed their match cancelled in girls’s doubles. The Canadians, seeded fifth, have been slated to play France’s Clara Burel and Varvara Gracheva.

The Canadian singles matches have been rescheduled to Sunday together with Fernandez and Dabrowski’s doubles match. Auger-Aliassime and Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., will begin their males’s doubles match later this week. The identical goes for combined doubles, the place Auger-Aliassime will play with Dabrowski.

Dream group: Nadal, Alcaraz advance in doubles

Nadal and Alcaraz — Spain’s old-and-new pairing of tennis superstars — gained the primary match they’ve ever performed collectively as a doubles group, eliminating Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 7-6 (4), 6-4.

The 38-year-old Nadal has not made clear whether or not the Summer time Video games would be the final occasion of his storied profession, though there’s been loads of hypothesis it is going to be, given all of his current damage points — he wore white tape wrapped round his proper thigh Saturday — and his connection to Roland Garros. That is the clay-court facility getting used for these Olympics and the location of the annual French Open, the place he claimed a file 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles.

Whereas he has performed solely sparingly over the previous two seasons due to hip surgical procedure and an stomach muscle drawback, and misplaced within the first spherical of this 12 months’s French Open to eventual runner-up Alexander Zverev, Nadal seemed simply effective Saturday. Then once more, doubles requires far much less motion and stamina than singles, in fact.

Nadal’s motion appeared OK, and he confirmed off his great volleying means, together with one back-to-the-net, over-the-shoulder, no-look winner within the first set. After the purpose, he wheeled and punched the air. Followers celebrated wildly.

Nadal incessantly slapped palms with Alcaraz between factors — whether or not gained or misplaced — and sometimes patted his much-younger accomplice on the shoulder throughout pauses within the motion.

When the match ended with a volley off Alcaraz’s racket, Nadal raised each fists. Alcaraz turned to his new accomplice and yelled, “Vamos!”

Among the many different huge names from the game scheduled to play later Saturday was four-time main champion Naomi Osaka.

Coco Gauff, the feminine flag bearer for america on Friday, was slated to make her Olympic debut Saturday with Jessica Pegula in doubles. Gauff gained the French Open doubles title with Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic final month and the U.S. Open singles trophy final September.

Three years in the past, Gauff missed the Tokyo Video games after testing optimistic for COVID-19 proper earlier than she was imagined to fly to Japan.

Osaka loses to Kerber in 1st spherical

Angelique Kerber eradicated Naomi Osaka 7-5, 6-3 within the first spherical of the Paris Olympics tennis competitors on Saturday night time in a matchup between former No. 1-ranked gamers who personal a number of Grand Slam titles.

Kerber has mentioned she is going to retire after competing for Germany at these Summer time Video games.

Osaka hoped for a greater displaying than she had on the Tokyo Olympics three years in the past in her native Japan. She was imagined to be one of many huge stars and obtained the honour of lighting the cauldron on the opening ceremony.

However Osaka misplaced within the third spherical there and mentioned she felt an actual sense of strain to carry out properly in entrance of her house followers. She was born in Japan to a Japanese mom and Haitian father, and the household moved to america when Osaka was 3.