Alcaraz Begins Roland Garros Title Defence with Ease Against Zeppieri
The Spaniard starts his title defence at Roland Garros with a comfortable victory over the Italian
Enric Gardiner
Lunes, 26 de mayo 2025, 15:45
Carlos Alcaraz continues his flawless record in Grand Slam openers. He has played 17 first rounds in these tournaments and has always emerged victorious. The latest was this Monday against Giulio Zeppieri (6-3, 6-4, 6-2), marking his eighth consecutive win at Roland Garros and a strong start to his title defence.
Alcaraz, who trained on the Philippe Chatrier and witnessed the tribute to Rafa Nadal, was moved by the organisers to the Suzanne Lenglen to accommodate Richard Gasquet, a French tennis legend, who might have played his last match at the tournament on Monday.
The change of venue did not unsettle the Spaniard, although he needed a few minutes to adapt. In the first game, Zeppieri, more match-fit, had two of the three break points he would have throughout the match. The Italian, ranked 310 in the world, advanced through the qualifiers for the fourth consecutive year without dropping a set, but his initial opportunities quickly faded against the top seed, who wore a white shirt with green horizontal stripes.
His new outfit, which surprised many, almost garnered more attention than the match itself. The Spaniard, with over thirty winners, near-perfect net play—approaching 25 times and winning 21 points—and a service he never lost, gave his opponent little chance, who conceded after an hour and 58 minutes.
Less unknown than Zeppieri is his second-round opponent, Fabian Marozsan. The Hungarian swept past Luca Nardi in the first round and will face Alcaraz for the third time in his career. Marozsan defeated him in Rome 2023, when he wasn't even in the top 100, and the Spaniard avenged this in Indian Wells a year later. Additionally, the Hungarian, now among the world's top 60, arrives in good form after defeating Joao Fonseca and Andrey Rublev at the Rome Masters 1000. His record against top-10 opponents is surprisingly good, with six wins in 14 matches against them.
Bouzas, the big surprise
The day's big surprise also came at the Lenglen, where Jessica Bouzas defeated ninth seed Emma Navarro with a crushing 6-0, 6-1. The player from Pontevedra, who caused a sensation in the first round of a Grand Slam as she did at Wimbledon 2024 by defeating the reigning champion Marketa Vondrousova on the centre court, could have even secured a double 6-0, but the American salvaged some pride by breaking Bouzas in the penultimate game.
With this victory, Bouzas has now won at all the Grand Slams (Paris was the only one missing) and will face American Robin Montgomery for a place in the third round, whom she has never met in an official match.
Monday's session also marked the farewell of Albert Ramos from Roland Garros, who will retire this year on an unspecified date. After impressively advancing through the qualifiers, he couldn't overcome the two-time finalist Casper Ruud (6-3, 6-4, 6-2). The Catalan bids farewell to Paris with 32 matches played (16-16) and the quarter-finals in 2016 as his best result.
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