Paris - The Italian tennis pros have made a convincing start at this year's Roland Garros. In addition to Federico Cinà and Lorenzo Sonego, Flavio Cobolli, Matteo Berrettini and Jasmine Paolini also qualified for the second round of the Grand Slam tournament on the clay court in Paris.
Sinner plays in the evening, heat in Paris
A yellow heat warning is still in force in the French capital, as temperatures are expected to exceed 30 degrees both today and tomorrow. Due to the extreme weather conditions, South Tyrolean Jannik Sinner will not play his first round match until the evening session. The match against French wild card holder Clement Tabur on the main court Philippe Chatrier is not scheduled until 20:15. It will be the first meeting between the two on one of the main courts. Previously, other Italians had already been challenged on the secondary courts: Matteo Arnaldi started in the morning against Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor. Elisabetta Cocciaretto's matches against Russian Alina Korneeva and Luciano Darderi's against Austrian Sebastian Ofner will follow in the afternoon.
Italian successes at the start
The Italians had already made positive headlines the day before. In an all-Italian duel, Flavio Cobolli defeated qualifier Andrea Pellegrino 6:4, 7:6 and 6:3 in two hours and 23 minutes after a hard-fought match. Cobolli goes into his next match against China's Yibing Wu as the favorite. Matteo Berrettini from Rome made a strong comeback: after losing the first set, he improved and beat Marton Fucsovics from Hungary 2:6, 7:5, 6:1 and 6:2 after more than three hours. His opponent in the second round is Arthur Rinderknech from France.
There was also an Italian success in the women's draw. Jasmine Paolini, the 2024 finalist, beat Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska 7:5 and 6:3 despite initially trailing in the first set. She will now face Argentina's Solana Sierra. Meanwhile, an era came to an end in Paris: 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka was eliminated in four sets against Jesper De Jong at what was probably his last Roland Garros.
