PARIS, May 24 (ABC): World number two Daniil Medvedev eased into the French Open second round on Tuesday but he could not escape the shadow of Wimbledon, the Grand Slam tournament where he has been declared persona non grata.
Medvedev, who came into Paris with just one match on clay this year following hernia surgery, routed Argentina’s 103rd-ranked Facundo Bagnis 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 on the back of 35 winners and eight breaks of serve.
“I love Roland Garros, especially since last year,” said Medvedev, who had lost in the opening round on his first four trips to Paris before reaching the quarter-finals in 2021. “I hope this year I can go further.”
One place he will not be going, however, is the All England Club next month after Wimbledon banned all Russian and Belarusian players in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
The ATP and WTA responded by stripping the sport’s most prestigious tournament of ranking points.
One day after former world number one Naomi Osaka said she was “leaning towards not playing” Wimbledon while defending champion Novak Djokovic said he will play — despite losing 2,000 points — in what he described as a “lose-lose situation”, the controversy showed no signs of abating.
“I will go there to get my prize money, as I would for an exhibition tournament,” said Frenchman Benoit Paire after a 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 loss to Ilya Ivashka in which he hit 24 double faults.
“The ATP should defend the majority of players, not four or five players.”
Denis Shapovalov, a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2021, said he objected both to the ban imposed by Wimbledon and the decision to strip the points.
“I think they could have gone with it a different way, maybe keep 50 percent like they have in the past or some kind of fairness,” said the Canadian.
Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, admitted she was also in two minds over Wimbledon.
“If there are no points, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do,” the Latvian 13th seed said after beating Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti.
The biggest loser on the women’s side will be the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova who will drop the 1,000 points she gathered by finishing runner-up to the now retired Ashleigh Barty in 2021.
