From French kissing to a mixed bag for Britain: French Open round-up

“If I hadn’t been live on air, I would have punched him.” — Maly Thomas

Maly Thomas, a female journalist who had to duck away from being kissed live on air by French tennis player, Maxime Hamou. The Frenchman had just been knocked out of the tournament at Roland-Garros, and was giving an interview to Eurosport as he attempted to show a poorly measured level of affection to the reporter.

No stranger to controversy, Hamou has made a name for himself already in France this tournament after he walked out of an interview on Friday, and fell out with an umpire asking the official: “Why are you here?”?

Elsewhere, world No. 1, Andy Murray came through his first-round in four sets after beating Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0. In similar fashion to Novak Djokovic, it was a less than convincing start from the Briton who was broken four times in five games, and comes into the tournament with a few question marks following an indifferent start to the year:

“A lot of people think I have got no chance of doing anything at the French [Open] after the last couple of weeks. But I do think I can still do well there.”

Andy Murray

However, British No. 2, Kyle Edmund, had a very successful opening day on court, coming through in straight sets against, Gastao Elias. Edmund has only been as far as round-two in the French Open, and faces the potential for a very tough second round draw in Renzo Olivo who is on the brink of knocking out fan favourite and 12th seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The day was not quite as successful was the female British No. 1, Johanna Konta, as she fell to a shock defeat to Hsieh Su-Wei – a player ranked 109th in the world. It’s the third time in a row Konta has fallen at the first hurdle, and means there are no British women left at Roland-Garros; the 26-year-old will be hoping for more success on the grass surface.