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Big names continue to progress at Roland Garros

Simona Halep. (Carine06 / Flickr)
Roar Guru
27th May, 2016
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Two of the challengers for the French Open title are through to the fourth round after Spain’s Garbine Muguruza and Romania’s Simona Halep scored contrasting victories to start Day 6 at Roland Garros.

Last year’s Wimbledon runner-up, Muguruza, kicked off play on Court Philippe Chatrier and wasted very little time in dispatching Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets to advance to the fourth round for the third consecutive year.

It is the second straight time that the Spaniard has won in straight sets without losing a game in the second set. This followed her first round struggle against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in which she came from a set down to win in three.

She now awaits the winner of the all-Russian showdown between 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, which was yet to be played when this article was written.

Meanwhile, on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, sixth seed Halep dropped the opening set against Japanese rising star Naomi Osaka before recovering to win in three sets and remain on track for a maiden Grand Slam title.

Awaiting her in the fourth round will be 2010 runner-up Samantha Stosur, who overcame last year’s finalist, Lucie Safarova, in three sets, avenging a recent defeat to the Czech left-hander in Prague in the process.

Stosur took the opening set 6-3 but was blanked in the second set tiebreak before going on to take a strongly-contested third set by 7-5, breaking Safarova in the twelfth game to do so.

For Safarova, the loss means that, in addition to missing the first quarter of the season due to illness, the 29-year-old faces the prospect of possibly being unseeded for Wimbledon, depending on how the rest of the tournament unfolds.

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Compatriot and tenth seed Petra Kvitova’s tournament also came to an end after she suffered a three-set defeat to Shelby Rogers, who is through to the fourth round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

The 26-year-old Czech suffered the ignominy of being bagelled twice on either side of a tightly contested tiebreak, which she won by seven points to three.

Rogers advancing to the fourth round means that there will be a first-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist when she faces off against Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu, a recent semi-finalist in Rome, on Sunday.

And after two consecutive five-set cliffhangers, men’s second seed Andy Murray had it easy in the third round against Croatian serving machine Ivo Karlovic, winning in straight sets despite being pushed to a third set tiebreak.

Earlier, Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic was the first man to secure his ticket to the second week after he defeated Slovakian lucky loser Andrej Martin in straight sets; his next opponent will be Albert Ramos-Vinolas after the Spaniard upset American 23rd seed Jack Sock in five sets.

On Thursday, the big names won through to the third round with Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal remaining on track for a semi-final showdown against each other, as too are the Williams sisters, who next meet French opposition in the third round.

Djokovic, who is attempting to complete the Career Grand Slam for the fifth time, dismissed Belgian Steve Darcis in straight sets while Nadal, going for a record tenth title at Roland Garros, showed no mercy against Argentine Facundo Bagnis, losing just three games each on either side of a second set bagel.

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Next for the world number one is Slovenian-turned-Brit Aljaz Bedene, while Nadal next faces compatriot Marcel Granollers after his French opponent Nicolas Mahut retired early in the third set, having fallen two sets to love down by that point.

Home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also advanced to round three but not before having to come from two sets to love down against Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, whom the Frenchman had already beaten at the Australian Open in January.

11th seed David Ferrer and seventh seed Tomas Berdych also progressed and are both just a win away each from facing off in the fourth round, possibly for the right to face Djokovic in the quarter-finals.

On the women’s side, defending champion Serena thrashed Brazilian Teliana Pereira 6-2, 6-1 while elder sister Venus dealt the same treatment to compatriot and qualifier Louisa Chirico.

Both now go on to face Kristina Mladenovic and Alize Cornet in their respective third round ties. Mladenovic, who upset Li Na in the first round in 2014, defeated Timea Babos in straight sets while Cornet went the distance against Tatjana Maria.

2008 champion Ana Ivanovic also progressed, defeating Japan’s Kurumi Nara 7-5, 6-1 to keep alive the possibility of a fourth round showdown against defending champion Serena Williams.

First, though, the Serb must get past Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, against whom she has won all seven of their previous meetings, including in straight sets in the quarter-finals last year and in the second round in 2014.

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The former world number one’s run to the semi-finals last year was her best result at a Grand Slam tournament since saluting at Roland Garros eight years ago, and was a rare highlight in a 2015 season which saw her tumbling out of the top ten and down to her current ranking of 16th.

If she can set up the meeting against Williams by defeating Svitolina, then she will have every chance of repeating her upset victory against the American at the 2014 Australian Open, a result which proved to be a stepping stone towards her finishing that year ranked fifth in the world.

However, a loss could see her drop out of the world’s top 20, but with very little points to defend from the end of the French Open through to the US Open series, can accrue as much rankings points required to be seeded at the Rio Olympics.

American 15th seed Madison Keys also progressed, while Swiss eighth seed and last year’s semi-finalist Timea Bacsinszky did so at the expense of Canadian glamour girl Eugenie Bouchard.

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