‘Maybe, it was good to lose’

Tunisiarsquos Ons Jabeur suffered a shock French Open first round exit on Sunday but admitted ldquoMaybe it was good to loserdquo The sixthseeded Tunisian crashed out to Polandrsquos 56thranked Magda Linette 36 76 74 75Jabeur came into the event with a seasonleading 17 wins on clay in 2022 and with the prestigious Madrid title under her beltMagda LinetteHowever she was undone Sunday by 24 unforced errors in the two hour 28minute match Linette had lost to Jabeur in the third round in 2021 having stunned an injuryhit top seed Ashleigh Barty in her previous matchTime to reflect for JabeurldquoObviously I was expecting better but we say maybe something happens bad because there is something good happening in the futurerdquo said Jabeur ldquoHopefully the grass season hopefully Wimbledon I donrsquot know but itrsquos definitely a great time to reflect and to see whatrsquos going to happen nextrdquoDominic Thiem during his match against Hugo DellienldquoI just tried to stay focused after the first set and tried to make her uncomfortable I was happy to fight for every single pointrdquo said Linette who needed treatment on a leg injury after dropping the first set ldquoI wanted to put her in the situation where shecouldnrsquot move me around as muchrdquoThiem crashes outMeanwhile twotime French Open runnerup Dominic Thiem whose ranking has slipped to 194 after a lengthy battle with a wrist injury crashed out in the first round Sunday losing 63 62 64 to Hugo Dellien of Bolivia as Spanish teenage sensation Carlos Alcaraz prepared to give Roland Garros a glimpse of the future of Grand Slam tennisThiem the 2020 US Open champion has yet to win a match in six attempts since his return in March He has now lost 10 tourlevel matches in a row His last victory came in Rome just over a year agoThe 28yearold Austrian a former World No3 reached at least the quarterfinals at Roland Garros five years running from 2016 to 2020 He finished runnerup to Rafael Nadal in 2018 and 2019 ldquoItrsquos not the greatest feeling to go in a Grand Slam knowing that all is not perfect in practice I donrsquot play like I would like to in practicerdquo said the AustrianMuguruza bows outFormer French Open champion Garbine Muguruza was knocked out in the first round on Sunday losing 26 63 64 to Estoniarsquos Kaia Kanepi the oldest woman in the tournamentThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever