All shook up.
That summed up ninth seed Alexander Zverev after a dizzying 6-4 3-6 6-4 6-2 defeat by Fernando Verdasco.
Because not since 1957, when Elvis Presley’s hit of the same name was the most played tune on US jukeboxes, had an Italian Open champion been brought to his knees just days later in the first round at Roland Garros.
In fact, perhaps not since Nicolas Pietrangelli lost that match in 1957 to Australian Mal Anderson had such claycourt momentum been halted.
Zverev, though, knew the reason.
“I played absolute s***,” he said. “It’s quite simple.
“You sometimes play bad. It’s just … this is our sport. There are no regrets. I mean, what can you do? In Rome I played fantastic, I won the tournament. Here I played bad, I lost first round. That’s the way it goes.”
But in truth the match may have been lost a day earlier, when it was halted due to poor light.
Three-time champion Mats Wilander told Reuters that agreeing to stop had been a “rookie mistake” for the German.
“A ridiculous decision,” Wilander said. “He had all the momentum … the young guy should’ve just pushed on and insisted on playing. Thousands of people in the stadium missed out, we all missed out. (Verdasco’s) experience won through.”
Instead of continuing after grabbing the second set and the game’s momentum on Monday evening, Zverev agreed to halt play shortly after 8.30pm
When 33-year-old clay specialist Verdasco resumed on Tuesday, he outmuscled the German who had no answer to the Spaniard’s punishing groundstrokes.
Zverev was quick to put the performance in context.
“The world doesn’t stop now. I mean, I’m still No. 4 in the race to (the season ending championship in) London and I’m still doing OK this year. I won three tournaments so far. It’s not the end of the world, OK?
“Of course I should be concerned the way I played and the way I performed, but it’s nothing to be tragic about.”
Stan Wawrinka is safely through to the second round after a straight sets win over Jozef Kovalik of Slovakia.
Wawrinka started his clay season poorly before emerging with a title at the Geneva Open last week. The No.3 seed kept up his momentum at Roland Garros in a 6-2 7-6 (6) 6-3 victory.
Elsewhere rising South Korean Chung Hyeon eliminated 27th seed Sam Querry of the US in four sets while Slovakia’s Martin Klizan prevailed over Laurent Lokoli of France in a five-set epic. There was drama in that match when the Frenchm wildcard refused to shake hands after the loss, accusing Klizan of faking injuries throughout the match.
“He was not chasing drop shots and faked that his leg was hurting for more than two sets. Then he was running around like a rabbit in the fifth set,” Lokoli said. “And then he speaks to me about respect.”
Gael Monfils, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Denis Istomin and Juan Martin del Potro made light work of their respective first-round encounters, all prevailing in straight sets on Tuesday.
Nicolas Almagro won a tight fourth-set encounter over Marcos Baghdatis while Paolo Lorenzi, Karen Khachanov and hometown hope Jeremy Chardy all advanced.
