Francesca Schiavone denies retirement rumors

The French Open's Twitter feed posted a video of the crowd at Court Suzanne Lenglen giving 2010 title winner and 2011 runner-up Francesca Schiavone a standing ovation after her 6-2, 6-4 first-round loss to 26th-seeded Kristina Mladenovic.

And Tuesday's tweet included this line: ''For her last Roland Garros, Francesca Schiavone, 35 years old and the champion in 2010, deserved a real ovation.''

That was news to Schiavone.

''They came to conclusions they should not have,'' she said.

Schiavone was surprised to get that send-off when she left the court, saying that the poor way she played certainly didn't merit that sort of adulation. And she was unaware anyone thought this might be her final appearance at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament.

Besides, the Italian explained, ''When I retire, I'd like to retire on my couch, without any sort of celebration.''

Schiavone told reporters: ''Roland Garros announced my retirement, but I didn't. So you can stand up, all of you, and go back to work in the office, because I didn't say that. I will announce when I will want to stop.''