Alja Tomljanović winds back the clock as three Australians power into the French Open second round
Ajla Tomljanović needed to get "angry" as she handed teenage compatriot Maya Joint a first round defeat at the French Open on Monday.
On a day when Alexei Popyrin ended his Roland Garros drought and Daria Kasatkina savoured her first grand slam win under the Australian flag, the sight of three of the green-and-gold brigade powering into the second round even before Alex de Minaur makes his bow on Tuesday quite atoned for the miserable opening-day wipe-out.
With nine in action on a manic Monday in Paris, there were inevitably casualties littered around the Aussies' perennial red tennis graveyard with Aleksandar Vukic, Chris O'Connell, Daria Saville, Kim Birrell and a battered Jordan Thompson all succumbing.
But pride of place went to Tomljanović, who at 32-years-old looked as sharp as she's ever done in outplaying the new teenage Morocco Open champion Joint 6-1 6-3.
Joint, the 19-year-old Queenslander who's had a whirlwind 72 hours while winning her first two WTA titles in singles and doubles in Morocco, had defeated Tomljanović three days earlier in Rabat, when the 32-year-old former Australian number one pulled out when a set down with an abdominal concern.
But the three-time grand slam quarter-finalist looked a completely different proposition on Monday as she switched to all-out attack against the 19-year-old French Open debutant on the faster Paris clay.
Asked if she had a point to prove, Tomljanović explained: "My coach kind of gave me a really good pep talk — 'You've got to get angry, get determined' — and it really worked today.
"Maya had been playing so well, I had a few days to think about it and knew if I don't come out this way on the attack, it's going to be really tough. It's just nice to see everything pay off when I play the right way."
The victory sets up Tomljanović with a glamour tie against fourth seed Jasmine Paolini, the Italian who has become a big favourite with the locals since reaching the final last year.
Kastakina, playing in her first slam since switching her allegiance from Russia in March, had to work hard to subdue the world's top doubles player, Czech Kateřina Siniaková, 6-1 3-6 6-2.
"To play my first grand slam under the Australian flag, it's big honour. Yeah, just feel super happy and proud to also win the first match," the 2022 French Open semi-finalist said.
Earlier, Popyrin had ended his nightmare sequence at Roland Garros for his first opening-round win at the clay-court slam in six years as he was in command against Yoshihito Nishioka until the doughty Japanese had to retire with an injured back while trailing 7-5, 6-4, 1-2.
After Sunday's first-day wipe-out with all three Australians exiting, Popyrin reckoned it was a "nice feeling" to break the duck for the 16-strong green-and-gold contingent, the biggest at Roland Garros for 35 years.
"I feel like my game is starting to come back to me, the results are starting to show a bit more, there's more consistency and match wins every week. That's really important," the 25th seed said, who tackles another left-hander, Chilean Alejandro Tabilo, next.
Thompson bemoaned another blip in a "brutal season" during which he's suffered a ruptured plantar fascia in his foot, a torn oblique, and a groin injury, as he got hammered 6-4 6-2 6-1 by rising Czech Jiří Lehečka.
"The only positive from today is the body got through unscathed, but I guess that's because I copped a whipping," the 31-year-old said.
Seeded opponents proved too much for O'Connell, beaten 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) by the number 22 seed Ugo Humbert, Vukic, defeated 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 by number 24 seed Karen Khachanov, and qualifier Saville, who was outclassed 6-2, 6-1 by Australian Open champ Madison Keys.
Gold Coast's Kim Birrell also found the in-form Romanian Jaqueline Cristian, who'd been beaten by Joint in the Rabat final, in a different league in a 6-1 6-0 hammering.
Thompson revealed that Nick Kyrgios was left crestfallen after a fresh knee injury forced him to abandon his planned return to action at the French Open, leaving more question marks over the luckless former Wimbledon finalist's future in the sport.
Thompson, who had been set to play alongside Australia's great tennis maverick in his first Roland Garros for eight years, revealed the extent of his mate's misery with Kyrgios telling him he didn't know how much more he could take after his latest setback.
"Nick was really pumped to play here. He kept messaging me every week, 'you good to go to for doubs at Roland Garros'," revealed Thompson, who had been struggling with a litany of injuries himself.
"I know he was back home in Australia training on clay, but a few days ago, Nick told me that he's done something to his knee, so unfortunately, he just couldn't be here.
"He was pretty down. He told me he doesn't know how much more of these injuries he can take, and you've just got to feel for him.
"Because as much as he says things in the media, I think he loves playing tennis and he loves being on court, so it's disappointing that he can't be here on the court."
Australia's former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios, whose recent career has become a stop-start affair riddled with injury concerns, had declared happily only a couple of weeks ago that he would reunite with Thompson, whose regular doubles partner Max Purcell is serving a ban for infringing doping regulations.
The pair had played as juniors, finishing runners-up in the 2012 US Open.
But when the draw was announced on Monday, it was confirmed Thompson would line up instead alongside fellow Aussie Jason Kubler for a first-round match on Tuesday against French pair Quentin Halys and Albano Olivetti.
Kyrgios will be at Roland Garros, where he last competed in 2017 while reaching the second round, but only off-court as a TV commentator, as he increasingly turns his attention to media opportunities with time seemingly running out to resurrect his career at the age of 30.
"Yeah. I'm hoping that he can play, but it just depends on how his knee is," Thompson said.
Kyrgios, who's been plagued by knee and foot injuries and had reconstructive surgery on his racquet-wielding wrist, thought there was some light at the end of the tunnel when he won his first singles match for two-and-a-half years against American Mackenzie McDonald in Miami in March.
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