WORLD NUMBER ONE Novak Djokovic kicked off his bid for a 19th Grand Slam title with a straight sets win over Tennys Sandgren inside an empty stadium at the French Open on Tuesday.
A French government Covid-19 curfew of 9pm means that nine out of the 10 scheduled evening sessions at the tournament have to be played without spectators inside the 15,000-capacity Court Philippe Chatrier.
Djokovic saw off world number 66 Sandgren 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 for his fourth win in four meetings with the American.
Top seed Djokovic, the champion in Paris in 2016, is attempting to become the first man in more than 50 years to win all four Slams multiple times.
He will face Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay for a place in the last 32.
Meanwhile, Carla Suarez Navarro came close to winning her first match back after recovering from cancer, but bowed out in the first round with defeat by Sloane Stephens.
The Spaniard, a former world number six and two-time quarter-finalist in Paris, was told in September 2020 that she was suffering with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
But almost nine months later, Suarez Navarro is back after recovering following eight chemotherapy and 15 radiotherapy sessions.
Roland Garros was the first step of a farewell tour before retirement which will also take in Wimbledon, the US Open and possibly the Olympics in Tokyo.
The 32-year-old served for the match against 2018 runner-up Stephens on Tuesday, but eventually lost 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 after two hours and 24 minutes on Court Simonne Mathieu.
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