|
PARIS -- There will be nine Americans in action Monday on the red courts of Roland Garros, and they will likely not want to be forced to match the drama fellow countryman Steve Johnson provided Sunday. One of only three U.S. players on the Day 1 schedule, Johnson gave up a two-set lead before locking up a 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (1), 3-6, 6-3 victory against No. 26 seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. This was a solid 3-hour, 29-minute win for Johnson. Garcia-Lopez was the first (and only) men's seed to lose Sunday and came in with a 21-11 record and two titles so far this season. More significant, the Spaniard is a comfortable creature of clay, and Johnson, decidedly, is not. After the 25-year-old from Orange, California, lost the third-set tiebreaker 7-1, things did not look promising. "I wasn't, like, panicking," Johnson said after the match. "I was down a break in the fifth. It was one of those things where, a couple of years ago, when I was younger, it might have gotten away from me. "But he's still got to hold five times to win the match. I felt comfortable out there in the fifth." Johnson has progressed nicely as a professional after becoming the first player to win four NCAA team titles and back-to-back singles championships while at USC. He leaped 120 spots in 2014 and is currently the fifth-ranked American man at No. 55, behind John Isner (No. 17), Jack Sock (No. 36), Sam Querrey (No. 38) and Donald Young (49). And that could change soon since all of those players have difficult first-round matches.
|
