Barbora Krejcikova's French Open title defence has ended in the opening round, as local hope Diane Parry was roared to a 1-6 6-2 6-3 victory against the second-seeded Czech.
Krejcikova, who defeated Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the 2021 final for her maiden Grand Slam title, arrived at Roland Garros with no competitive matches under her belt since February, due to an elbow injury.
She breezed through the opening set in 34 minutes against the 97th-ranked Parry, who was facing a top-10 opponent for the first time in her career.
But Parry, 19, turned the match on its head by winning the second set, as errors and double faults began to creep into Krejcikova's game.
Krejcikova took a lengthy break after losing the second set and was booed by the partisan French crowd at the Court Philippe Chatrier on her return.
The 26-year-old Czech broke early in the deciding set, but urged on by the crowd, Parry levelled at 2-2 and then got the decisive break in the eighth game.
Krejcikova found the net on match point for her 45th unforced error, as Parry completed a remarkable victory, with the crowd chanting 'Parry, Parry' throughout the contest.
"It's a dream for me," said Parry. "It was always a dream to play on this court with the French crowd to support me.
"They clearly pushed me to victory today, I'm the happiest person right now. It's never easy to start on this kind of court against the defending champion.
"You can get a bit tight, which happened in the first set, but then I managed to relax."
Parry will play Colombian Camila Osorio for a place in the third round.
Krejcikova was notably upset after the loss.
"I think set and 2-0, that was where I hit the wall," she said, with tears trickling down her cheeks.
"I just collapsed physically and, I mean, it was tough, because I didn't play the matches. Usually, the matches are different than the practices and I tried to prepare the best way I could, but I collapsed."
Krejcikova, who left the officials news conference for a few minutes to compose herself, said she was pain-free, but struggled to keep up with the pace.
"There was option of a surgery as well, which I denied," she said, adding she was unsure of how to deal with her elbow problem for a long time.
"I didn't want to do that one, I was just looking for a different option. I was actually lucky that I found a different option and with the doctors, they were very nice and they tried to help me the best way they could.
"Then we finally found out how to treat it. I thought maybe I will not make it to Roland Garros, so I'm still very happy to be here."
Reuters
