Clara Burel, 19 years old and 357th in the world, reached the third round of Roland Garros on Thursday, October 1, where the French presence is historically rare, while Novak Djokovic continued his path.

The big favorite of the men's table has again let slip only five games against Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis (66th), hit in the back and erased 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 in just 1 h 23.

For her first participation in the main draw of the French Open, Clara Burel authoritatively dismissed the Slovenian Kaja Juvan (also 19, but 103rd in the WTA), 7-6 (8-6), 6-2.

Ex-world number one for juniors, Burel returns from a left wrist injury and therefore takes a new step in the wake of her first victory on the main circuit, obtained in Strasbourg, just before Roland-Garros, over the Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko .

Another tricolor success of the day, Fiona Ferro (49th, 23 years old) contained on the Central the power of Kazakhe Elena Rybakina (18th) to win 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in just over two hours. 

Three French women in the 3rd round

So that the French will be three at the rendezvous of the third round, after the qualification of Caroline Garcia the day before.

In the men's table, only Hugo Gaston (239th) will defend the French chances, while they were 18 in the first round.

The young 20-year-old Toulouse player will face the first cador of his career on Friday, in this case the 2015 Roland-Garros winner, the Swiss Stan Wawrinka.

Clara Burel could have been confronted with Alizé Cornet (52nd) to ensure a French presence in the round of 16, but the 30-year-old Niçoise could not pass the obstacle Shuai Zhang (39th): the Chinese won 6 -4, 7-6 (7/3) and it is she who will face the Breton.

The Porte d'Auteuil day began with the early elimination of the N.2 seed, Karolina Pliskova.

It must be said that she was opposed to the queen of surprise Jelena Ostapenko.

Until this 2020 edition, the Latvian (43rd) has played four Roland-Garros tournaments since 2016: she has lost each time in the first round, except in 2017 ... where she won the title, her only trophy of the Grand Slam to date.

"It's hard to compare because it was three years ago and I wasn't afraid of anything and no one knew me. Now the players know what I'm capable of," said the Latvian.

Tsitsipas catches up with time

On the other hand, the easy victory of Stefanos Tsitsipas (6th) at the expense of the Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas (60th) was less predictable.

The 22-year-old Greek, who came out only narrowly in the first round after being led 2 sets to 0 by Jaume Munar (109th), took barely an hour and a half to sweep Cuevas 6 -1, 6-4, 6-2.

"I am very satisfied with my game, I was very aggressive from the start, I wanted to be 100% present. I am happy to have won in three sets after my very complicated first round", commented the finalist of Hamburg Sunday.

The big match of the day, to applaud the thousands of empty seats on the Suzanne-Lenglen court, pitted the great Canadian hope Denis Shapovalov (11th) against the Spaniard Roberto Carballes (101st).

Against all expectations, it was the second who won 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 3-6, 8-6 after a five-hour showdown.

"It's crazy, for me, to win a match like that on this court," admitted the Spaniard.

Carballes thus signed at the age of 27 his first victory in five sets, his first victory against a player as well classified (Shapovalov was 10th at ATP the week before Roland-Garros) and obtained his first participation in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament.

With AFP

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