Zheng Qinwen, the Olympic gold medalist, made a triumphant return to Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros by defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The No. 8 seed avenged a previous loss to Pavlyuchenkova and extended her perfect first-round record at the French Open to 4-0 after kicking off her French Open campaign with a 6-4, 6-3 win over 2021 tournament finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
With the 1-hour, 22-minute win, the No. 8 seed exacted a measure of revenge against former World No. 11 Pavlyuchenkova — having lost to her in their first career meeting in Cincinnati last summer — and also improved her first-round record at Roland Garros to 4-0.
Zheng will be hoping that her clay-court success elsewhere will finally translate to a deep run at the Parisian major. Dating back to the Olympics last year, Zheng is now 17-3 on clay in her past 20 matches.
In the opening hours of Day 1, Zheng’s path forward already cleared of one potential threat. Germany’s Eva Lys was a 6-0, 6-3 winner over No. 28 seed Peyton Stearns who beat Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina on her way to the semifinals at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and was Zheng’s projected third-round opponent.
Lys will face talented Canadian 18-year-old Victoria Mboko next, who was a 6-1, 7-6(4) winner over 2024 Wimbledon quarterfinalist Lulu Sun in her Grand Slam main-draw debut, while Zheng will face Colombia’s Emilana Arango, who ousted Alexandra Eala
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