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Novak Djokovic opened his bid for a first Olympic gold medal with a 6-0, 6-1 victory at Roland Garros that could set up a second-round matchup with longtime rival Rafael Nadal.
No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz, the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, also opened with an easy 6-3, 6-1 victory over Lebanon’s Hady Habib.
Serbia’s Djokovic, who is seeded No. 1 in the men’s field after Jannik Sinner pulled out with tonsillitis, needed less than an hour to dismiss Australia’s Matthew Ebden, a doubles player participating in a tour-level singles match for the first time in two years.
Ebden got into the singles bracket because he was in Paris to play doubles and thus available when 16th-ranked Holger Rune of Denmark withdrew with an injured wrist.
Ebden’s lone game came after he was already down 6-0, 4-0 — and he celebrated by pulling the front of his yellow shirt over his head and baring his chest to roars from the flag-dotted crowd.
Djokovic has endured some Olympic disappointments, twice losing in the semifinals, with his only medal being a singles bronze in Beijing in 2008.
Nadal, the Spaniard who won a record 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles at the French Open and owns two Summer Games golds, is scheduled to play his opening singles match Sunday. He was a surprise torch carrier during the rain-soaked opening ceremony along the Seine on Friday night and was slated to compete alongside Alcaraz in doubles Saturday night.
Related video: Paris Olympics 2024: Novak Djokovic begins quest for gold (WION)
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Paris Olympics 2024: Novak Djokovic begins quest for gold
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Day 1 of tennis began with showers that might have contributed to slow lines for umbrella-toting spectators at the facility’s security checks near entrances and postponed by at least 4½ hours the start of matches at the 10 courts without retractable roofs.