tennis

Organisers said that a little more than 5,000 fans would be allowed on the Roland Garros grounds on the first 10 days, 1,000 on each of the three show courts and the others on outside courts, reports DPA. The remaining five days, with play only on the show courts, would see 5,000 fans allowed per court. The French Open was pushed back by a week owing to the coronavirus and is scheduled for May 30-June 13.

"I'm super happy," Karatsev said after the match. "It was a really tough match. Against Medvedev you never know, he's a big server. It's tough to return, but I managed it well." Madrid Open champion Alexander Zverev of Germany picked up from where he had left off in his Italian Open opener, racing past qualifier Hugo Dellien 6-2, 6-2.

Using the entire clay-court repertoire -- from heavy topspin forehands to sliding defence -- that brought her to the French Open semi-finals last October, the world No. 44 took one hour and 58 minutes to get past 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena. The victory over world No.8 Serena was Nadia's third career win over a top-10 player, all in the last eight months.

"How much do you wanna play? I asked you three times, you are not checking anything," the 33-year-old shouted at umpire Nacho Forcadell on Tuesday. Forcadell finally relented and the players were sent off the court at 5-5 in the second set. When they returned three hours later, Djokovic won the set 7-6(5).

Berrettini, who recorded his ninth win in his last 10 matches, will take on Australia's John Millman, who defeated Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4, in the second round. Basilashvili, winner of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open and BMW Open this year, got the decisive breakthrough enroute to clinching the first set with a forehand winner.

Garbine, a three-time Rome semi-finalist, was slated to face last week's Madrid semi-finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Tuesday, but the Russian withdrew due to an abdominal injury. In another first-round match, before rain suspended day's play proceedings, Russia's Veronika Kudermetova notched a hard-fought 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Belgium's world No.14 Elise Mertens in windy conditions.

If the Russian -- who spent 10 days in bed recovering from Covid-19 before the Madrid Open -- holds on to the No. 2 ranking until the seedings are made in two weeks' time, Nadal would be the No. 3 seed in Paris and potentially on the same half of the draw as No. 1 Novak Djokovic, according to tennis.com.

This is Osaka's second recognition at the Laureus Sports Awards. She won the 'Breakthrough of the Year' award in 2019 after a season that saw her win her first WTA title at the BNP Paribas Open and begin her ascent to the top of the game with her first US Open title that fall.

In another interesting quarter-final match-up, No. 1 seed from Australia, Ashleigh Barty could face Aryna Sabalenka in a rematch of the Stuttgart and Madrid Open finals. Serena, a four-time champion in Rome in 2002, 2013, 2014 and 2016, will be competing for the first time since her Australian Open semi-final loss to Osaka.

Austrian third seed Dominic Thiem needed less than an hour to brush past American qualifier Marcos Giron 6-1, 6-3, while Matteo Berrettini won against his fellow Italian Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-4. Meanwhile, world number seven Andrey Rublev had to work hard on his Madrid Open debut on Tuesday before booking a place in the third round with a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 win over Tommy Paul, Xinhua reports.