Varvara Gracheva: “I will remember that moment until the end of my life. After the interview, they said it’s your first French Open as a French player with the French crowd. I said yes. I couldn’t believe what a wonderful atmosphere it was.”
Emma Navarro: “I’ve had a really great week and a half here in Paris. “It’s always a learning experience, always a good experience. Yeah, I’m moving forward in a better place than I was when I came into this week.”
Sasson supreme
Israel’s Guy Sasson claimed the quad wheelchair singles title on Sunday, winning his first major on his Paris debut. The 44-year-old world No.3 gained revenge for Australian Open final heartbreak against Sam Schroder to lift his maiden Slam title in his third overall appearance at the majors.
Sasson won 6-2, 3-6, 7-6[10-7] to halt No.2-seeded Schroder’s 18-match winning streak. In the previous round Sasson defeated top-seeded Niels Vink.
“It’s a huge win. First of all, it’s first time for me in Roland-Garros. It’s first time that I won a Grand Slam,” Sasson said.
A first for a team, a sixth for Pavic
Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo won their maiden Grand Slam title as a team by defeating Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori for the Roland-Garros men’s doubles title on Saturday.
The 7-5, 6-3 victory for the El Salvadorian-Croatian duo marked a massive milestone for Pavic: with the title he becomes just the sixth man in the Open era after Mark Woodforde, Todd Woodbridge, Daniel Nestor, and Bob and Mike Bryan to complete the career Grand Slam and win Olympic doubles gold.
“I think I’m going to need some time for all of that, just to get to my mind what I really achieved today,” said a blown-away Pavic, of his achievement.