45 Years Pass - No Bulgarian Tennis Player at Roland Garros

Forty-five years have passed, but the timing is not in our favor. For the first time since 1981, no Bulgarian tennis players will be competing in the main draw at Roland Garros for both men and women. The final hope for continuing this tradition ended with Victoria Tomova's defeat. In the second round of the Paris qualifiers, she lost 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 to Polina Kudermetova, who plays for Uzbekistan.

Recent Attempts Fall Short

In her first attempt at qualifying for this Grand Slam tournament, former quarter-finalist Grigor Dimitrov was eliminated in the first round, as was debutante Elizara Yanova. Yanova, from Plovdiv, became the 32nd Bulgarian representative in Grand Slam tournaments—21 of whom are women and 11 are men. The series of consecutive Bulgarian appearances at the French Open began with Manuela Maleeva in 1982. At that time, the eldest of the sisters was just 15 years old and had to qualify, defeating Patrica Hee (Hong Kong) 7-5, 6-2, Jennifer Munder (USA) 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, and Bernadet Randall (Ave) 6-2, 6-1. In the main draw, the future No. 3 in the world ranking was eliminated in the second round by Lisa Bondar (USA) 5-7, 1-6.

Historical Context

In 1968, when the open era began in tennis and professionals were allowed to compete, Maria Chakarova and Lubka Radkova participated at Roland Garros. Chakarova defeated the host representative, Janine Lifriz, but due to injury, she did not compete in the second round match. In the absence of both men and women, we look forward to the appearance of the male youth player, Dimitar Kisimov, the champion of doubles at the Australian Open this season.

The draw for the main draw of Roland Garros has been released. The world No. 1, Jannik Sinner (It), begins against the Frenchman Clement Tabur. The former Ski champion from South Tyrol is considered the main favorite to win this tournament for the first time in the absence of the injured champion Carlos Alcaraz (Esp). In the other half of the draw is Novak Djokovic, who will have to play against the service machine Giovanni Mpechi Pericar (Fr). Djokovic announced that his coach for this tournament will be his former Davis Cup teammate, Viktor Troicki.

The French Open starts somewhat in the shadow of a threat from the big stars to protest, as they insist on taking a larger share of the income. Some competitors have signed a declaration demanding more money. The protest will involve leaving media press conferences after 15 minutes during the day.