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PARIS – The first day of women’s qualifying at Roland Garros – with no Canadians in action – produced few surprises.

Only four of the 16 seeds in action were upset, and two of them were the No. 31 and No. 32 seeds (the bottom two seeds).

The shocker was to see 2020 women’s singles runner-up Sofia Kenin in the qualifying, as she has used up her protected ranking availabilities for Grand Slams.

She defeated Aryna Rodionova last week in Rome; Monday, with a stoppage to get her upper leg taped, she went down in straight sets to French wild card Margaux Rouvroy (a 22-year-old ranked No. 278 who has earned less than 50,000 Euros in her career) and left the court in tears.

She had been set to play women’s doubles with Bethanie Mattek-Sands; she was a late withdrawal from that (before the qualifying began), so perhaps she was carrying the injury.

Still, a shocker.

Sesil is BACK!!

And another surprise was to see Sesil Karantatcheva of Bulgaria in the qualifying draw.

At 15, Karatantcheva was a surprise quarterfinalist in Paris, and later that year reached her career high-ranking of No. 35. That was in … 2005.

Now 33 (and born, we should point out, the same day as Roger Federer and Félix Auger-Aliassime), Karatantcheva has no ranking; until she played an ITF last month, she hadn’t played a match in nearly four years, since losing in the first round of quailfying at Wimbledon in 2019. It was her first match win at Roland Garros in seven years.

She defeated Mexico’s Fernanda Contreras in three sets, and Contreras is a pretty handy player on the dirt.

Andreeva RG debut successful

Before Madrid last month, Mirra Andreeva was a 15-year-old who was an excellent junior, with an older sister, Erika, who was on her way up.

Now, she’s in the top 150 and she took care of No. 31 seed Polina Kudermetova (younger sister of Veronika) in the first round. She’s now 18-2 in the pros on the 2023 season.

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Roland Garros
Location: Paris, France
Category: Grand Slam
Surface: Red Clay
Dates: May 28 – June 11, 2023
Total Prize money: $23,352,500
Draws: S128 – D64

Monday, May 22, 2023
Final results
Qualifying, first round

Surprises of the day

Sesil KARATANTCHEVA (BUL) def Fernanda CONTRERAS (MEX) 36 61 63

Margaux ROUVROY (FRA) def [23] Sofia KENIN (USA) 64 63

Seeds upset

Sachia VICKERY (USA) def [16] Marina BASSOLS RIBERA (ESP) 26 76 (1) 60
Mirra ANDREEVA (RUS) def [31] Polina KUDERMETOVA (RUS) 61 64
Carolina ALVES (BRA) def [32] Eva LYS (GER) 62 36 63

Seeds advancing

[1] Camila OSORIO (COL) def Raluka SERBAN (CYP) 64 63
[3] Arantxa RUS (NED) def [WC] Audrey ALBIE (FRA) 61 63
[10] Elizabeth MANDLIK (USA) def Celine NAEF (SUI) 75 63
[11] Nao HIBINO (JPN) def Na-lae HAN (KOR) 46 63 61
[12] Yue YUAN (CHN) def Oksana SELEKHMETEVA (RUS) 61 36 62
[14] Simona WALTERT (SUI) def Carole MONNET (FRA) 61 63
[15] Elina AVANESYAN (RUS) def Darya ASTAKHOVA (RUS) 61 63
[19] Viktoria HRUNCAKOVA (SVK) def Sonay KARTAL (GBR) 26 75 64
[21] Ylena IN-ALBON (SUI) def Marcela ZACARIAS (MEX) 63 60
[22] Laura PIGOSSI (BRA) def Olga GOVORTSOVA (BLR) 61 63
[25] Greet MINNEN (BEL) def Katharina HOBGARSKI (GER) 64 62
[26] Kayla DAY (USA) def Dalila JAKUPOVIC (SLO) 61 61

Other results (in alphabetical order)

Emiliana ARANGO (COL) def Himeno SAKATSUME (JPN) 64 61
Miriam BULGARU (ROU) def Ekaterina MAKAROVA (RUS) 16 63 62
Kristina DMITRUK (BLR) def [WC] Daphnée MPETSHI PERRICARD (FRA) 61 63
Fiona FERRO (FRA) def Jessica BOUZAS MANEIRO (ESP) 63 16 61
Valentini GRAMMATIKOPOULOU (GRE) def  Sinja KRAUS (AUT) 64 61
Mai HONTAMA (JPN) def Magali KEMPEN (BEL) 75 62
Francesca JONES (GBR) def  Coco VANDEWEGHE (USA) 63 63
Noma NOHA AKUGUE (GER) def [WC] Emma LENE (FRA) 75 46 64
Lesley PATTINAMA KERKHOVE (NED) def Leyre ROMERO GORMAZ (ESP) 36 76 (5) 64
[WC] Nina RADOVANOVIC (FRA) def [WC] Lois BOISSON (FRA) 16 62 75
Barbora PALICOVA (CZE) def Sakura HOSOGI (JPN) 60 64
Arina RODIONOVA (AUS) def Tara WURTH (CRO) 76 (10) 60
Elena-Gabriela RUSE (ROU) def Jaqueline CRISTIAN (ROU) 63 64
Iryna SHYMANOVICH (RUS) def Joanna GARLAND (TPE) 64 60
Dayana YASTREMSKA (UKR) def Alexandra CADANTU-IGNATIK (ROU) 75 63
 

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