Alexandrova's victory

The fourth day of competition started well for the Russian tennis players.

The first to enter the court was 25-year-old Ekaterina Aleksandrova, who is ranked 31st in the WTA rankings, and confidently outplayed Australian-born Astra Sharma, 134th world racket. 

Rosiyanka won both sets with a score of 6: 3.

It is curious that in the first round of the tuner, Catherine also met with a rival from the Green Continent - Maddison Inglis and achieved a similar result in the match with her - 6: 3, 6: 3.

She beat Sharma Aleksandrova thanks to her confident actions on someone else's serve.

She made three breaks despite the fact that Astra - none.

Also, the domestic athlete won 46% of the points at the reception (the Australian - only 24%).

“I'm glad I was able to win in two sets, because it was very cold on the court.

A strong wind was blowing, it was raining, I wanted to be in the locker room as soon as possible, ”the tennis player admitted in an interview with Eurosport after the match.

In the third round, where Ekaterina made her way for the first time in her career, she will have to meet with a much more serious rival - Elina Svitolina, who is on the fifth line in the WTA ranking. 

But Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova completed her performance at Roland Garros.

In the second round, the Muscovite met with Katezhina Sinyakova and was considered the favorite of this confrontation.

In any case, in personal fights, the advantage was on her side - three wins and not a single defeat.

But this time the Czech woman deservedly prevailed.

The Russian woman acted uncertainly on her serve and allowed her opponent to make five breaks, and also made as many as 35 unforced mistakes.

The key moment of the first set came in the eighth game, when Sinyakova took someone else's serve to zero, and then confidently put an end to her own - 6: 3.

At the beginning of the second game, the rivals exchanged breaks, and then Pavlyuchenkova gave Katezhina a game, leading 40: 0.

As a result, the Czech tennis player even in this case calmly brought the matter to victory - 6: 4, and in the next round she will meet with Kiki Bertens.

The defeat of 19-year-old Camilla Rakhimova from Maria Sakkari did not come as a surprise.

The 24th racket of the planet was initially considered a clear contender for victory and confirmed its status. 

The Russian woman was able to impose a fight on a more experienced tennis player only in the first set.

She managed to make two breaks and bring the matter to a tiebreak.

However, there Camille did not succeed - 0: 7.

In the second game, Sakkari did not leave Rakhimova a chance, gaining the upper hand in eight games.   

In doubles, the reigning US Open champions Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva confidently beat French women Aliza Cornier and Pauline Parmante in the first round - 6: 4, 6: 2.

Thus, the German woman with the Russian woman extended the winning streak to six meetings.

The tournament started successfully for Varvara Gracheva, who is paired with the Italian Yasmine Paolini.

On Wednesday, in a tough three-set match that lasted two hours and six minutes, they broke the resistance of the Ukrainian sisters Lyudmila and Nadezhda Kichenok - 6: 3, 4: 6, 6: 4.

Serena Williams' health problems

Perhaps the main event of the day was the withdrawal from the tournament of Serena Williams.

The American in the first round confidently outplayed her compatriot Christie Ann and was preparing for a meeting with Tsvetana Pironkova. 

However, shortly before the match, it became known that the 39-year-old athlete would not go to court due to serious problems with the Achilles tendon.

According to Serena, at the moment it hurts even to walk.

“I warmed up and it was a very short warm-up.

I talked to the coach and asked: "What do you think about this?"

We thought about the situation and realized that the decision to try to play would not be the best, "- quoted Williams Twitter" WTA Insider ".

At the same time, last year, a tennis player from the United States has already withdrawn from tournaments several times, for example, in Miami and Rome.

And in Indian Wells and Toronto, she was forced to give up the fight right in the course of matches.

Serena was eager to win in France and collect the fourth "Career helmet", but health problems prevented her from doing so.

They seem to be able to push an experienced athlete towards retirement.

And after being removed from Roland Garros, she had no choice but to say goodbye to the fans.

“Paris, I love you.

Don't worry, I'll be back.

I love everyone, thank you for your support.

I'm out of the game, but not for long, ”Williams wrote on Instagram.

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Posted by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) Sep 30, 2020 3:36 am PDT

The tournament was extremely unsuccessful for last year's US Open finalist Victoria Azarenka.

In the second round, the Belarusian unexpectedly lost to the 161st racket of the planet Anna Shmidlova, winning only four games - 2: 6, 2: 6.

For the entire match, Azarenka was never able to make a single break, and also made an unusually large number of unforced errors - 38. 

Apparently, Victoria simply had no strength left after performing in New York and Rome.

In September, she was forced to play 15 matches, including in doubles.

Surprisingly, none of the US Open-2020 semi-finalists managed to get through two rounds.

Serena Williams withdrew from the competition, Jennifer Brady lost in the first round, and Naomi Osaka refused to participate at all. 

Thus, a tennis player who is not in the top 100 (Barbrova Kreichikova (114th place in the WTA ranking), Nadia Podorska (131st), Pironkova ( 157th), Shmidlova (161st)).

At the same time, the latter approached Roland Garros with a streak of 12 defeats in a row at the Grand Slam Tournaments, but in France managed to knock Venus Williams and Azarenka out of the fight.  

Nadal's 95th win in a row

While the strongest tennis players for women drop out of the fight, for men the main favorites quietly continue to win.

For example, the reigning champion Rafael Nadal did not leave any chances to the 236th racket of the world from the USA to MacDonald Mackenzie - 6: 1, 6: 0, 6: 3.

The match lasted only an hour and 42 minutes, and the American managed to take only four games on his serve.

For the experienced Spaniard, this victory was the 95th at the French Open and the 25th in a row.

95th RG victory


44-0 as No.

2 seed


25th consecutive win in Paris



That’s @RafaelNadal 👏 # RolandGarrospic.twitter.com / ZUwm9MdAy5

- Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) September 30, 2020

The US Open champion Dominic Thiem got a slightly more serious opponent in the second round.

The Austrian, like Nadal, met with a tennis player from the United States - Jack Sok.

The 28-year-old has won four tournaments in his career and even climbed to eighth place in the ATP rankings, but has not achieved significant success in recent years. 

However, unlike Mackenzie, in the match with the favorite, he made a break twice and even managed to transfer the third set to a tiebreak.

But Tim still won a landslide victory - 6: 1, 6: 3, 7: 6.

In the next fight, Dominik will face off against the Norwegian Kasper Ruud. 

A much more difficult victory was won by the current US Open finalist Alexander Zverev.

It took the German tennis player five games to break the resistance of the Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert - 2: 6, 6: 4, 7: 6, 4: 6, 6: 4.

The duration of the match was four hours and two minutes. 

And the first set was a failure for the favorite.

He was defeated and won only two games.

The third one turned out to be incredibly difficult for Zverev, which he took only on a tiebreak.

At the same time, Alexander did not act very well on his serve and allowed his opponent to realize seven breakpoints. 

Meanwhile, Stan Wawrinka, who had stopped working with coach Magnus Norman before the start of Roland Garros, beat German Dominik Koepfer after Andy Murrem - 6: 3, 6: 2, 3: 6, 6: 1.

For the 35-year-old Swiss, this victory became the jubilee 150th at the Grand Slam Tournaments.

Also, a curious episode occurred right during the match.

Just as the German was preparing to serve, a sound like a cry was heard over the court.

Both tennis players reacted with surprise.

It soon became clear that the noise was caused by a fighter that broke the sound barrier.  

The competitive day was also successful for Sebastian Korda, the son of the former tennis player Peter Korda, who won the Australian Open both in singles and doubles. 

20-year-old Sebastian, flying the US flag, in four sets unexpectedly broke the resistance of compatriot John Isner, who is 190 places above him in the ATP ranking (23 against 213) - 6: 4, 6: 4, 2: 6, 6: 4.

In the first round, Korda Jr. knocked out another famous Italian tennis player Andreas Seppi from the fight.

At the same time, the current Roland Garros for him is only the second Grand Slam Tournament in his career after the home US Open, from which he flew out after the very first meeting.

But both representatives of Kazakhstan Alexander Bublik with Mikhail Kukushkin were defeated on Wednesday and completed their performance at the tournament.

The first in three sets lost to the Italian Lorenzo Sonego - 6: 7, 1: 6, 5: 7, and the second - to the Spaniard Pablo Martinez-Portero - 3: 6, 1: 6, 0: 6.

Yuri Rodionov, who plays for Austria, also “covered the racket”.

The 21-year-old athlete turned out to be weaker than the Slovak Norbert Gombos - 2: 6, 6: 2, 6: 7, 4: 6.