ROLAND GARROS
Tennis top seed Andy Murray up and running after blip
French Open champion pretender Alexander Zverev crashes out in the first round
Paris — Top seed Andy Murray overcame a second-set blip to beat Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 6-4 4-6 6-2 6-0 in the first round of the French Open on Tuesday. Murray, who has had an underwhelming year so far and was struck down by illness last week, hit 29 winners and was helped out by Kuznetsov making 45 unforced errors. The Briton next faces Slovakia’s Martin Klizan, who beat Laurent Lokoli of France. Alexander Zverev, the man seen as a potential French Open champion, crashed out in the first round while Johanna Konta became the second top 10 women’s player to exit. Zverev, just 20 and fresh from his sensational Rome Masters demolition of Novak Djokovic, slumped to a 6-4 3-6 6-4 6-2 defeat to Spain’s Fernando Verdasco. "I played absolute rubbish, that’s why I lost," said Zverev. "But life goes on, it’s not a tragedy. In Rome I played fantastic, I won the tournament. Here I played bad. That’s the way it goes." The beanpole German committed 50 unforced errors and drew jeers from the Phi...
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