Seven Americans in First Round Action at French Open Sunday; Musetti Claims First Challenger Title; Frusina Sweeps Grade 5 Titles in Albania

Much is different about the French Open this year, but one thing that is not is the Sunday start, unique among the slams. Twenty-three first round singles matches will take place Sunday, if weather permits, with seven Americans in action.

Earlier this month, it was announced that 15,000 fans would be allowed on the grounds, but that has been reduced several times due to the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in France, and is now down to 1000 fans per day, with 250 of those 1000 spots set aside for sponsors and other VIPs. See this Washington Post article for more on the decision to limit spectators.

The weather forecast is also making news, with temperatures in the 50s and 60s and rain expected throughout most of the event, according to weather.com. 

Sunday's schedule is here.

Sunday's French Open first round matches featuring Americans:

Sebastian Korda v Andreas Seppi(ITA)

Taylor Fritz[27] v Tomas Machac(CZE)[Q]

John Isner[21] v Elliot Benchetrit(FRA)[WC]

Shelby Rogers v Kamilla Rakhimova(RUS)[Q]

Varvara Lepchenko[Q] v Barbora Strycova(CZE)[32]

Coco Gauff v Johanna Konta(GBR)[9]

Venus Williams v Anna Karolina Schmiedlova(SVK)

Eighteen-year-old Lorenzo Musetti of Italy won his first ATP Challenger today at the Challenger 80 in his home country.

Although he was an unseeded wild card this week, he was arguably the favorite after his run at the Italian Open in Rome, where he defeated Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori en route to the round of 16. This week the 2019 US Open boys champion defeated top seed Frances Tiafoe in the second round 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, and then the No. 6 and No. 7 seeds before beating Thiago Monteiro of Brazil, who came through qualifying in spite of his ATP ranking of 89, 7-6(2), 7-6(5) in the final. That made six ATP Top 100 wins for Musetti in the past 12 days, according to this article from the ATP Challenger website. It's too bad the French Open couldn't find a wild card for him, but if looks as if he can make the main draw of the Australian Open on his ranking, which is now inside the Top 140.

At the Challenger 80 in Romania, Hunter Reese(Tennessee) and Jan Zielinski(Georgia) of Poland won their first title as a team in all-former-collegiate doubles final, beating Hans Hach Verdugo(Abilene Christian) of Mexico and Robert Galloway(Wofford) 6-4, 6-2. Reese and Zielinski, who did not drop a set in the tournament, beat the No. 4 and No. 2 seeds prior to the final, in which neither team was seeded. Reese, 27, has won four Challenger titles since his first in 2014. It's the first Challenger title for Zielinski, 23, but he has 14 Futures titles, including 5 at $25K events this year. Zielinski reached the NCAA doubles final in 2017 with Robert Loeb.

Alex Frusina, a blue chip in the Class of 2024, won his first two ITF Junior Circuit titles this week at a Grade 5 in Albania. The 14-year-old Texan, who played his first ITF event back at a Grade 4 in Panama in March, won both the singles and doubles titles unseeded. Receiving a wild card into singles, he defeated top seed Berk Bugarikj of Macedonia 6-4, 6-3 in the final; in doubles he teamed with Naoya Honda of Japan to beat top seeds Birtan Duran of Turkey and Aman Sharma of the United States 7-6(4), 1-6, 10-7 in the final.