Schiavone Surprise
The French Open’s Twitter feed posted a video of the crowd at Court Suzanne lenglen giving 2010 title winner and 2011 runner-up Francesca Schiavone a standing ovation after her 6-2, 6-4 first-round loss to 26th-seeded Kristina Mladenovic. And Tuesday’s tweet included this line: “For her last Roland Garros, Francesca Schiavone, 35 years old and the champion in 2010, deserved a real ovation.”
Schiavone was surprised to get that send-off when she left the court, saying that the poor way she played certainly didn’t merit that sort of adulation. And she was unaware anyone thought this might be her final appearance at the clay-court.
Besides, the Italian explained, “When I retire, I’d like to retire on my couch, without any sort of celebration. Roland Garros announced my retirement, but I didn’t. So you can stand up, all of you, and go back to work in the office, because I didn’t say that. I will announce when I will want to stop.”
Murray opens up
Andy Murray says his sometimes fiery on-court behavior wasn’t the cause of his split from coach Amelie Mauresmo. Speaking after a first-round win at the French Open, Murray insisted “we certainly didn’t fall out,” and their relationship remains “good” despite the end of their ground-breaking, two-year coaching tie last month. Murray says he and Mauresmo parted on good terms.” To say that the reason that we stopped working together is because of my behavior on the court, that is not true,” he said.