For her first match at Roland-Garros as a French participant, nearly a yr after her naturalization, Varvara Gracheva had a dream night. The 88th participant on this planet achieved one of many huge performances of the primary spherical within the girls’s draw on Monday, defeating Maria Sakkari, the quantity 6 seed within the event, on the Simonne-Mathieu courtroom (3-6, 6-4, 6-3).
Dealing with the 2021 semi-finalist of the event, Gracheva didn’t tremble after the lack of the primary spherical, leaving the Greek to foil alone within the second spherical. As if to indicate her domination in entrance of the Simone Mathieu viewers which was beginning to replenish, the Frenchwoman received the set on Sakkari’s serve, an enormous smile on her face as she modified sides.
And because the solar started to set, Gracheva remained robust, not weakening below the burden of a misplaced first match level to the sound of “Allez Vava” which resonated close to the greenhouses of the orangery. Past launching her season completely in opposition to a prime 10 participant who was largely worn out within the Parisian train, the 88th on this planet took her revenge on the Greek after the correction acquired within the second spherical in Rome in opposition to Sakkari (6-2, 6-2).
Gracheva can now take pleasure in a profitable begin, and calmly flip in the direction of the second spherical the place she’s going to face the American Bernarda Pera (eightieth within the WTA rankings). The latter simply dominated the Japanese Nao Hibino (6-2, 6-0), Monday night