Mixed bag for Asian players at Roland Garros
The 2024 French Open has come to a close, a tournament that held significance in the Olympic year. The rankings after the tournament served as a crucial qualifying criteria for the upcoming Paris Games. With Olympic berths on the line, Asian players — 77 in all — were determined to capitalise on this opportunity and a few of them made gains.
It was a no-brainer that all of them were ready to give their all. Many of them went deep into the draws making it to the quarterfinals and the semi-finals across categories.
World no. 4 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan was a strong contender in the women’s singles but her run was halted in the quarterfinals Jasmine Paolini of Italy. China’s Qinwen Zheng had a great opportunity to make it to the pre-quarterfinals but despite waging a brave battle against Elina Avanesyan, she could no go past the Russian.
China’s Xinyu Wang also fought her heart out against Anastasia Potapova in the third round, strecthing the pulsating contest to three sets but just fell short.
The results in men’s singles too were mixed with China’s Zhizhen Zhang emerged the best Asian player making it to the third round, where he lost to world number 9 Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Kazakhstan’s and Asia’s bet Alexander Bublik had an underwhelming run as he was stopped Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff in the second round. Kei Nishikori too could not go beyond the second round. He retired mid-way into the contest against Amercian Ben Shelton.
In the men’s doubles, India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden reached the semi-finals, while Chinese Taipei’s Su Wei Hsieh and partner Jan Zielinski of Poland fell in the mixed doubles semi-finals.
In the juniors’ category, Japan’s Rei Sakamoto put up a dominating show in the boys’ singles draw before falling to Lorenzo Carboni of Italy in the quarterfinals. Sakamoto, along with Italian partner Federico Cina, fell just short of winning the doubles title.
In the wheelchair events, the standout performer was Japanese wheelchair tennis player Tokito Oda, who won his fourth major title and second Roland Garros title in a row.
The 18-year-old defeated Gustavo Fernandez 7-5 6-3 in the final. Oda also had a brilliant run the doubles men’s doubles where he ended a runner-up with partner Takuya Miki, losing 1-6 4-6 to top seeds Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid.
China’s Zhenzhen Zhu finished as runner-up in the women’s singles, while Japan’s Yui Kamiji, along with South African partner Kgothatso Montjane, finished as runners-up in the women’s wheelchair doubles.
As the tennis world looks ahead to the next Grand Slam, one thing is certain – the Paris 2024 Olympics will be an exciting event. It will be fascinating to see which Asian stars make a mark on the big stage.
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