
PARIS – When you’ve just turned 30, you don’t expect to lose your mother.
But that’s what happened to Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut a week ago, suddenly and unexpectedly.
There is still no confirmed information about exactly what happened.
And so it was with a heavy heart that he took the court against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan Monday, for his first-round match at the French Open.
Down two sets to one, Bautista-Agut prevailed 6-2, 6-7 (3) 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 3 1/2 hours to advance to the second round. He’ll play qualifier Santiago Giraldo.
Esther Agut managed a clothing store in Castellón.
Bautista-Agut, who pulled out of Rome as a preventative measure because of a hip issue, decided to carry on.
“Today, it was not easy to get the right feelings on the court. I just wanted to stay there, to fight until the last point. I think in some moments, I fell down, but then I could recover and I finished the match playing very well,” Bautista-Agut said afterwards.
“The best thing I thought on the court was to fight until the end, to give everything on the court, and that’s the most important thing.”
“It was a very emotional match, very intense,” he said afterwards, in Spanish. It was hard to manage everything.”
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