Lleyton Hewitt and Venus Williams have both made early exits from the French Open, getting ejected from the Roland Garros clay court tournament in the first round – the first time either have lost in the opening round since 2001.
Both players are renowned for fiery on-court demeanours but neither was able to translate gusto into a win.
Unseeded Hewitt went down to the 15 seed, native Gilles Simon in five. Lley-Lley was off to a stellar start, taking the opening two sets easily at 6-3 and 6-1 respectively. However, as the match went on Hewitt started showing his age and his legs started to give out, as Simon took advantage (both literally and figuratively) taking out the final three sets 6-4, 6-1 and 7-5 on his home turf.
The big upset of the first round came by way of 32-year-old Venus WIlliams who was ousted by an unseeded Urszula Radwanska. It was a set apiece (6-7, 7-6) until Radwanska nabbed the decider 6-4. Williams was battling a back injury and is a decade older than her Polish counterpart, which is ancient in tennis years. Venus and her power-hitting sister Serena Williams were recently made the subjects of a documentary released in the US this April.
