tennis

Naomi -- the reigning Australian Open champion -- announced the media boycott ahead of the Roland Garros event, which will get underway on Sunday, DPA reports. Under French Open rules, players are required to hold media conferences after each match. Naomi is the world's highest earning female athlete and will be fined by tournament officials should the world number two not take part in news conferences.

The 125th ranked Ankita lost to higher-ranked German Greet Minnen 2-6, 0-6 in one hour and 21 minutes. Ramkumar Ramanathan also crashed out, losing to Asian Games gold medallist, Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, 1-6, 2-6 in the second round of the qualifiers.

Another Indian, Ramkumar Ramanathan, also moved into the second round of qualifiers after rallying past the higher-ranked Michael Mmoh of the USA 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 on Tuesday while Prajnesh Gunneswaran failed to cross the first hurdle. Nagal, 23 -- currently ranked 143rd in the world in singles and who competed in the main draw of the Australian Open this year -- was in good touch against his 192-ranked Italian opponent

The Belgian starts favourite due to her better WTA ranking. She is ranked 125 in singles as against Ankita's rank of 182. Ankita is yet to make the main draw of the singles event at any Grand Slam. Earlier this year, she became the fifth Indian woman to qualify for the main draw of a Grand Slam when played the first round doubles at the Australian Open.

Nagal, ranked 142 currently, will face Macorca (ranked 191) for the first time. The Indian has won two and lost five matches on the ATP Tour this season. He lost in the first round of the Australian Open this year after qualifying for the second round of the US Open in 2020. The Jhajjar-born player is yet to make the main round at the Roland Garros.

Tsitsipas looked sharp throughout the week in central France and was in clinical form on Sunday, pouncing on some minor mistakes from Norrie to triumph in straight sets, DPA reports. Norrie was by no means an easy opponent, but five double faults handed Tsitsipas an edge he duly made the most of. This year's Monte Carlo champion had to claw back three break points in the opening game of the match but was firmly in control from then on.

Ruud, seeded third here, has been in impressive form throughout the clay-court swing, arriving in Geneva on the back of three consecutive semi-finals at Monte-Carlo, Munich and Madrid. In Geneva, the 22-year-old Ruud dropped only one set en route the championship match against Shapovalov, who was also seeking his second tour-level title.

World No. 30 Coco needed three sets to get past Czech Republic's Katerina Siniakova 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 in a high-quality encounter, while Wang, ranked 48th in the world, came from 1-5 down in the second set and saved three set points against American Sloane Stephens for a 6-2, 7-6(3) win

The French Open commences on May 24 with the final scheduled on June 13. The 29-year-old, who also won the Wimbledon in 2019, suffered a tear in her left calf during her second-round match against Germany's Angelique Kerber at the Italian Open in Rome last week. "It's with a heavy heart that I announce my withdrawal from @rolandgarros this year," Simona wrote on Twitter.

Coco, who has moved up five places to No. 30 in the latest WTA rankings, will take on Czech Republic's world No. 68 Katerina Siniakova in the semi-finals. Katerina continued her stellar week in Parma with another upset of a seeded player -- No. 8 seed and world No. 53 Caroline Garcia of France -- with a 7-5, 6-1 victory.