“Sunshine” Kraus makes his debut at Roland Garros

On May 28, the French Open, the world’s largest clay court tournament, began. Austria was initially represented by two champions: Julia Graber and Dominique Thiem. While a Dornbirn woman takes part in the scene on the Seine at the WTA tournament in Rabat, Thiem is already in the city of love and is preparing there with the other top players for her second Grand Slam tournament of the year.

But things are already getting serious for the few other red-white-red players at Roland Garros who are given a starting chance to qualify. This is designed for three rounds, 16 women and men buy a ticket for the main competition. For all athletes outside the top 100, successful qualification in one of the four disciplines is very important, especially from a financial point of view. There is already 69,000 euros for defeat in the first round (7,000 more than in 2022) – a lot of money with which many could finance a large part of the season.

Singa Krause with a new coach

Sinja (English: little sunshine) Krause tries her luck for the first time in the ladies’ class. The 21-year-old from Vienna, who has already made her way to the ranking of 151, celebrated victory in her first WTA tour match in Bogota just a month and a half ago, and has recently been trained by German Steffen Neutert. . The match begins against Valentini Grammaticopoulou.

For men, five athletes from the Alpine Republic tackle elimination. The two promising candidates for a place in the 128 grid are Styrian Sebastian Offner (against Ryo Noguchi) and Philippe Misolek (against Enzo Quacode) as well as Juri Rodionov (against Brandon Holt), who placed 14th, 20th and 22nd in the heats. We are. There is also Denis Novak (against Shintaro Mochizuki) and Maximilian Neuchrist (against Jesper de Jong). With the exception of Offner, all Austrians have their first turn today.