Five tennis players from Kazakhstan have travelled to France to seek success at Roland Garros tournament, one of the four Grand Slams events of the year, held from May 25 to June 8.
On the threshold of Roland Garros, two Kazakh top tennis players Andrey Golubev and Mikhail Kukushkin both improved their standings by two positions and are now ranked 53rd with 862 points and 54th with 859 points respectively in the ATP Tour (Association of Tennis Professionals) rankings.
Aleksandr Nedovesov, whose name broke through after a tandem win with Andrey Golubev against the Swiss pair; world’s legend Roger Federer and Australian Open 2014 winner Stanislas Wawrinka in the Davis Cup semis lost two positions and was ousted from Top 100 and is now ranked 101st.
In a tough match of the first round the French Nicolas Mahut (40th in ATP rankings) lost on his home field to Kukushkin 3:6, 6:7, 3:6, 4:6.
Yaroslava Shvedova (72) ousted Lauren Davis (66) of the U.S. in a two day match 3:6, 7:5, 6:4. The last two sets were postponed as it was too dark to continue.
Zarina Diyas (96th WTP Ranking) beat Belgian Kirsten Flipkens (22nd) 6:2, 6:7, 6:3 in a two hour face off in the first round but lost to the fifth seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 5:7, 2:6 and was knocked out of the tournament. Kvitova sought for a rematch against Diyas for a loss five years ago but this was a completely different game as both players came long way since then.
