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It was an eventful Day 4 at Roland Garros with favourites Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic among those who safely progressed through to the third round.
However, last year’s finalist, Simona Halep, crashed out after falling for the second time in her last three Grand Slam tournaments to Croat veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who also upset her at the US Open last year.
Federer, Wawrinka lead the men
The dream all-Swiss quarter-final between Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka is only two rounds away from materialising after the pair recorded contrasting victories over Marcel Granollers and Dusan Lajovic respectively.
Federer, the 2009 champion, was challenged in the second set of his match against Granollers but was otherwise untroubled, winning in straight sets to set up a third round match against Bosnia’s Samir Dzumhur.
Wawrinka was also challenged, as he required four sets to defeat Serb Dusan Lajovic, who reached the fourth round on his French Open debut last year. He now goes on to face American Steve Johnson for a fourth round berth.
There were no major surprises among the men, with fourth seed Tomas Berdych, US Open finalist Kei Nishikori and local favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga all progressing as expected to the third round.
However, Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco crashed out after going down in a five-set thriller to Germany’s Benjamin Becker. Last year’s semi-finalist, Ernests Gulbis, and 2011 quarter-finalist Fabio Fognini were among the other losers.
Sharapova sets up Stosur showdown
Defending champion Maria Sharapova and 2010 finalist Samantha Stosur set up an intriguing third round showdown with routine victories in their respective second round matches.
Sharapova, whose path to the final saw another obstacle removed after Simona Halep crashed out later in the day, made light work of compatriot Vitalia Diatchenko, winning in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1.
Stosur, on the other hand, was barely forced to raise a sweat as she thrashed French wildcard Amandine Hesse 6-0, 6-1, continuing her recent rich vein of form which saw her win a seventh career title in Strasbourg.
The third round showdown between Stosur and Sharapova is a repeat of last year’s thrilling fourth round match, which many considered to be one of the best matches of last year’s tournament outside of the women’s final.
Stosur was up a set and was six points from winning before the Russian took the next eight games in succession to win in three sets en route to claiming her second French Open title.
While the rematch will take place a round earlier than twelve months ago, it’s expected that the two women will once again serve up another thriller as Sharapova faces the first genuine hurdle in her title defence.
Halep crashes out as Ivanovic comes from behind again
2014 finalist Simona Halep became the biggest casualty of the day as she went down in straight sets to Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, thus further exposing her as a pretender at Grand Slam tournaments.
The third-seeded Romanian stuck with her opponent for most of the first set, which ended 7-5 in favour of Lucic-Baroni, before the Croat ran away with the second set, eventually winning 7-5, 6-1.
Halep’s early loss will see her drop over 1000 rankings points, and possibly out of the top four when the rankings are updated on June 8. Her fate now rests on how Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic, neither of whom went past the third round last year, all fare for the rest of the tournament.
Ivanovic, who was projected to play Halep in the quarter-finals, was again forced to come from a set down to defeat her opponent, this time, Japan’s Misaki Doi.
The Serb will now fancy her chances of a deep run this year and her next match will be against Croatia’s Donna Vekic, who defeated another Serb in Bojana Jovanovski, in her own second round match.
Should Ivanovic get past Vekic, the world number 165, then she will be guaranteed to face a Russian in the fourth round, with 2013 women’s doubles champions partners Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina to clash in the third round.
Apart from Halep, there were no other major women’s casualties on Day 4.
Kyrgios receives walkover as Aussie imports depart
Meanwhile, Australia’s Nick Kyrgios has received a free pass into the third round after his scheduled second round opponent, Kyle Edmund, withdrew due to a stomach injury.
The 29th seed will now rest up and will very likely face third seed Andy Murray in the third round on Saturday. The Scot is scheduled to face Portugal’s Joao Sousa in his second round match.
But the tournament is over for Australia’s two imports, with Ajla Tomljanovic going down to Germany’s Angelique Kerber in straight sets while Daria Gavrilova was forced to retire after dropping the first set 6-1 to another German, Sabine Lisicki.
Kerber will now face last year’s quarter-finalist Garbine Muguruza for a fourth round berth while Lisicki will take on the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova for a likely shot at defending champion Maria Sharapova in the last 16.
And so, after nearly two rounds, some more interesting matches are set to materialise as the favourites continue their march towards French Open glory.
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