French Open 2020: Siegemund wins 7: 5, 6: 3 - set 1 was (actually) already gone
Laura Siegemund prevailed against Kristina Mladenovic in a hard-fought first round match - after a crazy chase in set 1.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Sep 29, 2020, 04:09 pm
Siegemund started out with many variations - and maybe wanted too much. Therefore it was Mladenovic who quickly took the lead - it felt like there were too many variants at once for the Germans.
It was 5: 1 and the advantage was for the French when she made a strong stop, which Siegemund ran into and played as a counter-stop, Mladenovic then ran into the net. Point Siegemund - despite the cheers from "Kiki" that the ball had already jumped twice on Siegemund's side. As the TV pictures showed, it was. Instead of Mladenovic winning the set, it was called "debut", and Siegemund started her big catch-up.
She fended off six set balls in total, five of them in an eternally long game at 5: 3, she ultimately made six games in a row and used her first set ball to 7: 5.
Siegemund: "I reduced errors"
In the second round Siegemund managed the decisive break to 5: 3, with an energetic longline forehand she finally closed the match in her favor and celebrated for the second time after 2019 the passage into the second round of Roland Garros.
"I had a few chances at the beginning of the first set," said Siegemund after the game. "She played very solidly, I knocked a few easy balls, so I didn't play that bad, just finished badly," she said of the "false start" at the beginning. "At 1: 5 it got tight, I fought and tried to reduce the mistakes. Then she made a few more."
She thanked the French audience. "Thanks for coming. It's not an easy time and I know you would have preferred it if a French player had won." Even if there were only a few spectators, it would have been nice to hear some applause, even if it had been intended for the opponent.
Siegemund is now waiting for the winner of the game between Julia Görges and Alison Riske.