Alexander Zverev, Johanna Konta lose on day of upsets at Roland Garros
PARIS – Five thoughts from Tuesday at the 2017 French Open, where top seed Andy Murray advanced, Juan Martin del Potro won his first match at Roland Garros since 2012 and No. 7-seed Johanna Konta lost in the first round.
Never mind the rankings, we had our biggest upset of the tournament so far on Tuesday afternoon as No. 9-seed Alexander Zverev—fresh off his infiltration of the top 10 and his Rome title over Novak Djokovic— was defenestrated by the Spanish lefty Fernando Verdasco. In fairness, it was a brutal draw. Verdasco, 33, is the proverbial crafty veteran who beat Rafael Nadal in the first round of a major last year. Still, much was expected of Zverev—cited as he was by many as the best bet to win the event after Nadal and Djokovic. Seeing him go down so meekly was deeply disappointing. Not least for him. Here’s the self-assessment:
Q. What do you think made the difference today?
ALEXANDER ZVEREV: I played absolute s--- made the difference. It's quite simple.
And some love for doubles. Sort of. It hardly went remarked upon, but Tuesday saw a big upset on the men’s side. Marc Lopez and Feliciano Lopez, the defending champs, lost—and lost badly—falling to Horacio Zeballos and Julio Peralta 6-2, 6-3. We say it again: in the early rounds of these events it's easy for important results to get lost.
