Schwartzman wins first round epic at French Open

Diego Schwartzman is through to the second round of the French Open, after he won a thrilling three-and-a-half hour first round match.

Taking on Russian Andrey Rublev, the match got off to the worst possible start for the Argentine, as he lost the first set 6-0. However, he bounced back, winning the next two, 6-4, 6-2, only to lose the fourth set on a tiebreak, ensuing the match went to a fifth and final set. Again, he got off to a bad start, broken in his first service game, but he soon broke back to tie it up at 2-2.

Both men were then broken again, but then held serve until 7-7. Schwartzman broke again to go 8-7 up, before holding his nerve to serve out for the set. The 24-year-old next takes on Italian Stefano Napolitano on Wednesday. His doubles campaign is though over after he and American Frances Tiafoe were beaten 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 by American Ryan Harrison and New Zealand’s Michael Venus.

Another Italian, Camila Giorgi, did though suffer an early exit after she suffered a straight sets 6-2, 6-3 loss to Frenchwoman Oceane Dodin.

Israel only have one senior player – Jonathan Erlich – at Roland Garros and he begins his campaign later today, when teaming up with Brazilian Andre Sa, the pair take on Slovakian Martin Klizan and Portugal’s Joao Sousa.

Dudi Sela missed qualifying by one place, and opted not to take part in the qualifiers, Amir Weintraub is currently out injured, while Julia Glushko’s opted not to take part in the qualifiers due to her low ranking.

There is though one more Israeli in action – Yshai Oliel who is set to take part in the junior boys tournament.