South African Davis Cup teammates and recent finalists in the Soweto Open, Rik De Voest and Izak van der Merwe, began their campaigns on the gruelling French Open clay courts at Roland Garros on Tuesday on a winning note with first-round qualifying victories.
De Voest beat Ivo Kilec of Slovakia 6-3 7-6 (5) and Van der Merwe, the 29th seed in the 128-man qualifying segment, accounted for Estonia’s Jurgen Zopp 6-1 7-6 (3), but after comfortable opening sets both South Africans were forced into tiebreakers in closely-fought second sets.
Three qualifying victories are needed in the tough preliminary rounds to gain a place in the main draw and De Voest’s mettle will be severely tested in the next round when he faces the qualifying round’s number one seed, Alex Bogomolov Junior.
Van der Merwe is next up against canny French clay court exponent David Guez and the 29th seed will need to make full use of his potent serve to progress into the final qualifying round when the field of 128 will be reduced to 16 first-round qualifiers.
South African number one Kevin Anderson, who has made good progress to a recent ankle injury which resulted in him retiring in a first-round game against Sam Querrey in Spain, has an automatic berth into the first round by virtue of his 35th world ranking. — Sapa