 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 May 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 May 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 May 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 May 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 May 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 May 2004 |
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| 30 May 2004 - Paris - Eleanor Preston | |
| Karantcheva breaks Grand Slam duck |
It marked her first win in a Grand Slam, though no-one watching her beat Ayassamy would have guessed from her accomplished, confident performance.
“I’m happy because I’ve started very well. It’s kind of a relief to have won my first Grand Slam match, but when I thought about it in the match it made her a bit nervous,” she said. “Luckily I was playing well when it mattered.”
Karantcheva has been dividing her time between playing senior and junior events and won her first WTA match by beating the seeded Magui Serna at the Pacific Life Open in March. “I didn’t feel it put more pressure to perform today but it is a little uncomfortable at first so you have to adjust your mentality. Once you start playing matches though you forget about things like that it just becomes about the ball.
Nor has the no-nonsense Bulgarian had any problem adjusting to Europe’s red clay. She spends the winter months at the Bollettieri Academy practicing on the facility’s hard, clay and grass courts. “I love red clay, I have no problem changing surfaces at all because I’m kind of used to it,” she said. “I think most players should have the same attitude. Some people think about it too much and worry about what shots they would be playing on what courts, and they tell themselves there is a bigger difference than there really is. You have to focus on your game because if you have a good game that will show regardless of what surface you are on.”
Karantcheva now plays Thailand’s Pichitttra Thongdach in the second round. Thongdach battled past New Zealander Eden Marama 36 64 64.
Also through in the girls’ tournament is fourth seed Michaella Krajicek, who made her breakthrough in the junior tournament at Roland Garros twelve months ago by making the semi-finals. Krajicek beat Shengnan Sun 63 60.
Seeded Czech Katerina Bohmova, who is in the same quarter of the draw as Karantcheva, wasted little time in her first match, defeating Brazil’s Teliana Pereira 62 64.
It’s only day one of Roland Garros 2004 and the boys’ competition has already seen its first major upset with El Salvador's Rafael Arevalo’s epic 1-6, 7-5, 8-6 win over Spanish second seed Marcel Granollers-Pujol.
The win was a huge relief for the El Salvador player, who lost to the second seed at Roland Garros a year ago and came very close to doing so again in 2004. At a set and break down he looked down and out but somehow managed to scrap his way back into the match.
“My defeat last year was definitely in my mind,” said Arevalo, proudly wearing his ITF Team tracksuit. “At 0-3 down in the second set he started to waver a little bit and I put in an extra effort but I never thought I would lose. I always believed I could win even though I knew it was going to be a difficult match. It’s certainly the biggest win of my career so far.”
He now plays Australia’s Lachlan Ferguson, who also had to work hard in his rain-delayed match, eventually getting past USA’s Timothy Neilly 26 75 63.
13th seeded American Scott Oudsema is also out, beaten 63 63 by Viktor Troicki of Serbia Montenegro, while Oudsema’s compatriot Donald Young suffered a loss 67 75 63 to Korean seed Sun-Yong Kim Jr.
Spare a thought for New Zealand’s William Ward, who fell and twisted an ankle during his opening match against Lukas Lacko of Slovakia and was forced to retire at one set all. Ward won the first set 75 and was leading 4-2 in the second when the incident occurred. He underwent a scan on his injured ankle and had his foot heavily strapped afterwards, though he was still hopeful of playing in the doubles competition.
It was a far better day for French third see Josselyn Ouanna, though he too had to fight his way through to the second round, overcoming Robert Haase of Holland 64 67 63. He has a tricky match next against Brazil’s Bruno Rosa.
In other results seeds Brendan Evans, Michael Zverev and Karan Rastogi all progressed, as did Alexandre Krasnoroutsky, who beat Daniel Muller of Germany 57 62 75.
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