05/24/26 04:29:00
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05/24 04:28 CDT French Open starts amid a heat wave in Paris. Djokovic to play
Perricard in the night match
French Open starts amid a heat wave in Paris. Djokovic to play Perricard in the
night match
PARIS (AP) --- The French Open started amid a heat wave in Paris on Sunday.
Among the early matches on Day 1 of the clay-court Grand Slam were 13th-seeded
Karen Khachanov against Arthur Gea on Court Suzanne-Lenglen and 15th-seeded
Marta Kostyuk against Oksana Selekhmeteva on Court Simonne-Mathieu.
The temperature was already 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) when play
started at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT) and was due to soar to 31 Celsius (88 Fahrenheit).
Spectators folded newspapers in half and fanned themselves to keep cool as
players on court attempted to stay hydrated.
The opening match on Court Philippe-Chatrier, the main stadium, was due to
start an hour later with 11th-seeded Belinda Bencic playing Sinja Kraus.
The night match on Chatrier features three-time champion Novak Djokovic against
Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
Two days after his 39th birthday, Djokovic will play a men's record 82nd Grand
Slam tournament --- one more than Roger Federer and Feliciano Lopez.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
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