Sam Stosur waited 2½ hours to play because of rain, then quickly won her opening match at the French Open.
The 2010 runner-up swept the first nine games Tuesday and drubbed 42-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-0, 6-2.
Play was delayed at the start on a 55-degree afternoon, and when the rain stopped, Stosur was ready. Playing on cozy Court 1, nicknamed the bullring, Stosur dominated with her strong serve and pinpoint groundstrokes, repeatedly skipping shots just inside the lines.
Shortly after Stosur finished, rain returned, prompting another delay.
“I was happy to get out there and start,” she said. “It was spitting a little bit when we went out there. You think, ‘Oh, are we going to start or are we notIJ’ lucky for me I was able to finish the match before this last downpour came.”
The resulting schedule backlog meant at least a handful of players won’t begin first-round matches until at least Wednesday, three days after some opening matches were completed. Among those hoping to take the court were the champions from the Australian Open in January, No. 1-seeded Novak Djokovic and No. 3 Victoria Azarenka.
Stosur, seeded No. 9, enjoyed a career breakthrough three years ago when she reached the Roland Garros final before losing to Francesca Schiavone. She won the U.S. Open in 2011, but this year has been hampered by a right calf injury and has yet to reach a semifinal.
Stosur said she’s now feeling 100 percent and hoping for a good run in Paris. “The first hurdle is done, but there are many, many more ahead of me,” she said. “I have to stay on track, but I think this was a very good start.”
Date-Krumm, who won the Strasbourg doubles title last week, is the third-oldest woman to play in the French Open. When she made her Roland Garros debut in 1989, nearly half the players in this year’s women’s draw had not yet been born. She said she didn’t play any singles matches on clay leading up to Roland Garros because the surface is her weakest, and while she had low expectations against Stosur, she felt she played better toward the finish.
“I enjoy it a little bit in the end of the second set,” she said. “My tennis, it was not so bad. Stosur is so strong, and she’s specialist on the clay. ... I’m already focused on the grass court season.”
Qualifier Mariana Duque-Marino beat Kristyna Pliskova 6-2, 6-0. In men’s play, No. 26 Grigor Dimitrov advanced when Alejandro Falla retired with indigestion trailing 6-4, 1-0.
After 90 minutes of play, the rain returned. Soggy fans huddled in corridors and formed long lines at the gourmet coffee, hot dog and waffle stands.
last week, tournament officials said they would move ahead with plans to build a retractable roof over center court, despite a judicial ruling in March that put the project on hold. The roof would be completed in 2018 as part of a $440 million renovation project at Roland Garros.
The men’s final last year between Djokovic and Rafael Nadal was halted because of rain in the fourth set, forcing an overnight suspension and the completion of the tournament on a Monday. It was the first time in 39 years the French Open didn’t finish on time.
Tomic retires in 3rd set
Australian tennis player Bernard Tomic, whose father was banned from attending the French Open because of an assault investigation, retired from his first-round match at Roland Garros in the third set.
The 61st-ranked Tomic was treated for a right hamstring problem in the first set but played on until stopping while trailing 7-5, 7-6 (8), 2-1 against Victor Hanescu of Romania.
Tomic’s father, John, is due in court in Madrid in October. He is accused of head-butting Bernard’s former hitting partner, Thomas Drouet.
The ATP and International Tennis Federation barred John Tomic from receiving credentials for tournaments. The French tennis federation announced Monday they had told the ATP, Bernard Tomic and his agent that the father would not be allowed onto the grounds of the clay-court Grand Slam tournament, even as a paying spectator.
French federation spokesman Christophe Proust said Tuesday that John Tomic had not been seen at the Roland Garros complex.