Five things we learned on Day 3 of Roland Garros - when a kiss is not a kiss

Hamou is out due to unwanted attentions, Zverev is out at the hands of Vedasco, Konta was flummoxed, Kyrgios is a dead loss at French and Murray praises paternity on day three of Roland Garros.

Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

1- Maxime Hamou is out. Really out.

The 21-year-old Frenchman lost his first round match on Monday in straight sets against Pablo Cuevas and then was expelled by the tournament organisers on day three for trying to kiss the Eurosport journalist Maly Thomas during a live interview. The video has been doing the rounds on social media and the French tennis federation condemned the behaviour of the world number 282 as reprehensible. Questions may well be asked about the reaction of the Eurosport journalists back at headquarters in the two-way live who were seen smiling at the antics.

2- Alex Zverev is out.

Zverev is a tiny bit younger than Hamou. And he’s out too. But not with such opprobrium. Zverev, who’s 1.97 metres tall, has been deemed one of the next big things on the circuit. He confirmed that promise by winning the Italian Open a few weeks before the French Open. But he won’t be adding the French Open’s Coupe des Mousquetaires to his trophy cabinet this year. The veteran Spaniard Fernando Verdasco dispatched him from the tournament in four sets. The defeated German said it was a tough loss but not the end of the world. “I’ve won a few titles this year and I’m fourth in the race to get to the end-of-season championships in London. You sometimes play badly. This is our sport. In Rome I played fantastic and I won the event. Here I played badly and I lost in the first round.”

3- Results, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.

So lamented Johanna Konta who failed to progress on day three to the second round. She was the seventh seed and expected to see off Su-Wei Hsieh from Taiwan. And after the Briton won the first set 6-2 in 26 minutes, it was all going to form. She looked as if she would advance to the second round at Roland Garros for the first time. But the wild and wacky world of competitive sport came acalling. Hsieh decided to summon up all her supertricky spins and slices. Konta was rather flummoxed. She fluffed a couple of big chances to lead in the second set and then restore parity in the decider. Still, there are no regrets for the 26-year-old. “The conversations that I have with my coaches and the way I feel, I think I’ve actually made a lot of improvements on the surface with every match I’ve played,” she said. “I’ve felt that my level has improved with every point, game and match that I’ve played this season. It’s just unfortunate that I didn’t get the chance to play another match here.”

4- Je m’appelle Nick.

Nick Kyrgios has got himself a reputation as the surly bad boy of tennis. But he was anything but the enfant terrible in his press conference after his first round victory over the German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber. “I saw the draw and I knew it would be very tough,” the 22-year-old admitted. “He’s been around for a long time. He knows what to do to win matches and he is pretty comfortable on the clay. I served well at important times in the match.” So into the second round he goes and a good start to his time with Sebastian Grosjean as coach. The former French number one got on board the Kyrgios train after practicing with him in Florida. Clearly the role is not to help Kyrgios speak to the Parisian crowds after matches à la Federer, Williams and Djokovic. “I know a bit of French. I did French classes at school,” recalled Kyrgios. “But I didn’t really listen that well. I know how to say my name and where I live, stuff like that. But I can’t really speak it. Sebastian speaks good English.” Et voilà.

5- Stand-up Andy Murray.

The Scot initially had a difficult relationship with the media. Surly and taciturn were but two of the words used about the lad from Dunblane. But it was all about youth. Murray’s grown into the game on and off the court and this has allowed his dry humour to, like his tennis, flourish. Asked if being a father to a young daughter had altered his routines, he replied honestly. “Before I became a dad, when decisions would be made around my tennis, the first thing you do is the best for your tennis. That changes a little bit in terms of my scheduling and my training. I spend a little bit more time at home than maybe I would have done in the past.
The 30-year-old added: “When I am looking at my scheduling, I speak with my wife about which events she is potentially going to come along to ... making sure that we’re not apart for more than three or four weeks at a time … because what I’ve noticed especially in the last few months is that, the older that she gets, the more she is doing and the more she is changing – this is my daughter and not my wife – and so I don’t want to miss anything.” A post-tennis career beckons.

To read our coverage of Roland Garros 2017, click here.