Paris (AFP)

At 19, she is already getting down to business: for her first Roland-Garros, Frenchwoman Clara Burel climbed to the third round on Wednesday by dismissing another young shoot, Slovenian Kaja Juvan, in two sets 7-6 (8 -6), 6-2.

The Bretonne, 357th in the WTA ranking, will face in the third round the Chinese Zhang Shuai, 39th in the world who beat the French Alizé Cornet (6-4, 7-6).

A challenge a cut above compared to Juvan, ranked 103rd.

Burel erased two first-set balls in favor of the Slovenian before taking revenge, in 1:37, for the one who had beaten her in the final of the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.

"It's a big revenge," Burel savored at a press conference.

"This loss had really hurt a lot."

This is the first time that Burel, invited by the organizers, has participated in the main draw of Roland-Garros.

In 2018, she was eliminated in the first round of qualifying.

This time, she will be one of the last 3 French representatives, with Caroline Garcia and Fiona Ferro.

"Since the beginning of the week, it's been a bit crazy what's going on. I didn't expect it necessarily", she commented calmly, not overwhelmed by the events.

Like his alter ego Hugo Gaston, 20, the last Frenchman in the men's race and another figure of the new tricolor wave.

"It's really cool that we're both in round three, we've known each other for a while."

- New revenge -

Eliminated in the 1st round of the 2019 Australian Open, before an operation on the left wrist which slowed down her progress, the former N.1 world juniors therefore reached a new milestone.

In the wake of her first victory on the main circuit, obtained in Strasbourg, just before Roland-Garros, over the Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko.

In the first round Porte d'Auteuil, Burel had recovered a set behind against the Dutch Arantxa Rus, 67th in the world, finally beaten 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.

Facing Juvan, under a changing sky, this time she spared herself this extra work by winning the tie-break of the first set despite two set points for Juvan.

The duel of hopes then turned in favor of the Frenchwoman, who broke her opponent twice to lead 5-1.

At the time of concluding on his service, Burel experienced a slump which Juvan took advantage of to come back to 5-2, 40-15.

But the Frenchwoman immediately pulled herself together to win on her first match point with a winning forehand.

"The conditions were not easy, we were changing the climate, there was a little rain, sun," said Burel.

"The first set was not played much, I'm doing well. On the second, she made a few more mistakes and I played a little better", summarizes the Costarmorican.

Against Zhang, Burel will again have scores to settle: the Chinese had blocked his way in the second round in Strasbourg (6-3, 7-6).

"I have a nice revenge to take," confirms the Breton.

See you on Saturday.

© 2020 AFP