Departure of two Russians
The fifth game day of the French Open in tennis began with the offensive defeat of the Russian woman Daria Kasatkina.
In the second round, she was to face an extremely difficult opponent - the Belarusian Arina Sobolenko.
Unfortunately, the 23-year-old native of Togliatti was able to resist only in the first set.
At the same time, the start of the match turned out to be more than intriguing.
The tennis players exchanged breaks twice, and then Kasatkina took the lead with a score of 4: 2, but Sobolenko soon returned the serve.
After another exchange of victories on someone else's serve, the outcome of the game could not be decided in any other way than on a tie-break, in which the Belarusian turned out to be stronger.
Both rivals clearly felt ill at ease, which is confirmed by statistics.
If Arina's advantage was in successful active actions, then Daria made half the number of forced mistakes.
But in the second set the situation changed dramatically.
Sobolenko literally swept Kasatkina off the court, whose number of blots increased, and did not give her a single game.
As a result, the meeting lasted only an hour and a half and ended with a score of 7: 6, 6: 0.
Veronica Kudermetova was unable to repeat her last year's result and left the French Open after her compatriot.
In the first set, she managed to resist the Croatian Petra Martic, winning in a tie-break, but then the result was affected by a large number of unforced and double mistakes.
The 13th seeded player broke the resistance of the Russian woman in the second game and easily brought the meeting to victory - 6: 7, 7: 5, 6: 3.
Thus, Ekaterina Aleksandrova became the only Russian woman who reached the third round of Roland Garros in singles.
On Thursday, the first racket of the country successfully started in pairs.
Together with the representative of Georgia Oksana Kalashnikova, she defeated the French duet Elsa Jacquemo - Elisen Leshemia with a score of 3: 6, 6: 4, 6: 3.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who left the Parisian major in singles the day before, also went to the second round in pairs.
At the current tournament, the Russian woman teamed up with the experienced Belgian Kirsten Flipkens.
They easily beat the Ukrainian-Canadian duet Kateryna Bondarenko - Sharon Fichman - 6: 4, 6: 1.
But Anna Kalinskaya and Yulia Putintseva could not defeat the titled Christina Mladenovic and Timeia Babos - 0: 6, 4: 6.
Defeat of the second seeded Plishkova
Perhaps the main surprise of the day in the women's singles is the defeat of the second seeded Karolina Plishkova, who lost in two sets to the representative of Latvia Anastasia Ostapenko with a score of 4: 6, 2: 6.
The finalist of the prestigious clay tournament in Rome, preceding the French Open, this time looked like a pale shadow of herself - her first serve did not go well at all, and the number of unforced errors significantly exceeded the number of actively scored points.
And although the opponent also showed not the best game, this was enough to send Plishkova home.
In the third round, Ostapenko will face the Spaniard Paola Badosa, who unexpectedly for many defeated the finalist of Roland Garros in 2018 Sloane Stevens - 6: 4, 4: 6, 6: 2.
Not without problems, this year's Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, who defeated Romanian Anu Bogdan, made it to the third round.
The native of Moscow had to recoup after the defeat in the first set and she confidently coped with her task, winning with a score of 3: 6, 6: 3, 6: 2.
Then came the two-time winner of the Grand Slam tournaments, Petra Kvitova.
She defeated Italian Yasmina Paoline - 6: 3, 6: 3.
Khachanov's difficult victory
Karen Khachanov faced unexpected resistance from the Czech Jiri Vesely in the second round.
The first set was dictated by the Russian, who allowed the opponent to take only one game.
However, in the second game, the Czech recalled that he was not a whipping boy at all, and managed to level the score by winning in a tiebreaker.
The third set went according to a similar scenario - Karen took Vesely's serve, and at the key moment he could not keep it.
As a result, everything was decided again in a tie-break, but this time the Russian did not miss the victory.
Not the most stable game of tennis players manifested itself in all its glory in the fourth set.
The players could not take their serve, alternately exchanging break-points, and for the third time brought the matter to a tie-break, in which Khachanov still managed to bring the match to victory - 6: 1, 6: 7, 7: 6, 7: 6.
In total, the fight lasted 3 hours 39 minutes.
Of course, the main active force of the Russian was his delivery right through.
Although here it is worth giving credit to Vesely, who, according to this indicator, did not lag behind his opponent and also completed seven aces.
At the same time, Khachanov's 10 double mistakes are alarming.
In a game with a more serious opponent, this can become a fatal factor for him.
In the third round, Karen will face the Chilean Christian Garin.
After Rublev's hardest comeback in the first round, one could assume that he would not have time to recover and play at full strength with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
However, the Russian proved that it is not in vain that he is one of the most promising tennis players in the world.
The first two sets did not cause any difficulties for the 13th seeded.
He confidently scored points due to aces and better implementation of the first innings, and also took advantage of the Spaniard's oversights.
But in the third game, Rublev himself began to make mistakes more often.
One break was enough for Davidovich-Fokine to make the fans of the Russian nervous.
At the same time, the tennis player himself remained unshakable.
It seemed that the defeat in the third set only gave him confidence, and in the final game he again gave the Spaniard only one game - and that one on his serve.
The match ended with a score of 7: 5, 6: 1, 3: 6, 6: 1.
It should be noted that Rublev has never reached the third round of the French Open.
In the next round, he will try to improve his personal best in a meeting with the representative of South Africa, Kevin Andersen.
Djokovic's 70th triumph
The first racket of the world Novak Djokovic in 1 hour 22 minutes dealt with the Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis.
The match ended with a score of 6: 1, 6: 2, 6: 2.
On the eve of the Spaniard Rafael Nadal won the 95th victory at Roland Garros, and on Thursday, the Serb also scored a landmark achievement.
The current success was his 70th on the Parisian courts.
This allowed him to catch up with Roger Federer and rise to second place in this indicator.
In addition, the leader of the ranking became the second tennis player in history who managed to win 70 victories in all four Grand Slam tournaments.
The leader in this list is the same legendary Swiss.
The sixth seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas also went to the third round.
He defeated Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas with a score of 6: 1, 6: 4, 6: 2.
Interestingly, the tennis players met less than a week ago in the 1/8 finals of the tournament in Hamburg.
Then the victory also remained with the sixth racket of the world.
And the title of the most dramatic match of the day can be given to the meeting between Denis Shapovalov, who gained momentum, and the Spaniard Roberto Carballes-Baena.
Having won in the first set, the 101st number in the world ranking lost in the next two games, but then managed to equalize the score.
In the fifth game, the Canadian served twice for the match, but the opponent showed amazing restraint and not only resisted at such a crucial moment, but also brought the meeting to victory - 5: 7, 7: 6, 3: 6, 6: 3, 6: 8.
In total, the tennis players spent 4 hours 57 minutes on the court.
The game was not without a controversial moment, which certainly marred the triumph of Carballes-Baene.
Shapovalov served for the match in the fifth set and when the score was 30:15, the line judge did not notice the opponent's strike.
The Hawk Eye system is not used in clay tournaments, so the Canadian could only agree with the decision.
At the same time, in total, he made 106 unforced mistakes against the opponent's 42, so he can only blame himself for the defeat.
When will we have Hawkeye on clay?
@ atptour @ rolandgarrospic.twitter.com / neTqwglkbD
- Denis Shapovalov (@denis_shapo) October 1, 2020