Roller coaster: Rublev bounced back from 0: 2 in sets and entered the second round of Roland Garros

Rublyov's incredible comeback

Andrei Rublev, like Daniil Medvedev, approached the current Roland Garros without a single victory in the main clay tournament.

But if the fifth racket of the world did not manage to interrupt his unlucky streak, then the recent triumphant of the competition in Hamburg with great difficulty still managed to break into the second round for the first time.

To do this, he had to win a grueling five-set match with Sam Querrey of the United States.

This game took place in the strangest scenario imaginable in tennis.

In the first game, Querry immediately took the lead with a score of 5: 2, but soon lost his serve dry and allowed Rublev to hold a tie-break.

In it, the American finished the set in his favor only on the third attempt.

Then Querry started again brilliantly and brought his advantage to 5: 1, after which everything repeated again - Rublev bounced back, winning the opponent's serve by zero, and lost in a tie-break.

True, this time the Russian also had set points in the 12th game, which he never managed to realize.

The third set began the same as the previous two.

Querry immediately took the lead with a score of 5: 2, and Rublev began to heroically recoup.

This time his efforts were not in vain.

The Russian lost on his serve only one point in three games and twice beat the opponent on the reception.

Then the match took place under the dictation of the 13th racket of the tournament.

He became almost infallible on the serve, performed six aces and converted the first break point he earned, which was enough to level the score in sets.

In the fifth game, Rublev again did not allow Querry to count on a break and brought the match to victory, making only two unforced errors.

The junior champion Roland Garros won his first match at senior level six years after that victory.

Next, Rublev will play with the Spaniard with Russian roots Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who occupies 70th place in the ATP ranking.

Rublev's recent rival in the final in Hamburg, Stefanos Tsitsipas, also won back from the score 0: 2 in sets.

He beat the Spaniard Jaume Munar, forcing him to capitulate after five games.

The Greek tennis player, seeded fifth, will play in the second round with Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas.

This season Tsitsipas occupies the third line in terms of the number of victories, behind only Novak Djokovic and Rublev.

That's a big comeback from @ AndreyRublev97 👏

The Hamburg champion gets it done after three hours and 17 minutes. # RolandGarrospic.twitter.com / IDSJjdOQtx

- ATP Tour (@atptour) September 29, 2020

Kasatkina's winning streak

Unlike Rublev and Medvedev, Daria Kasatkina always went at least to the second round at Roland Garros, and stopped at this stage and did not go further only last year.

The Russian tennis player continued her winning streak this season, beating Frenchwoman Harmony Tan with a score of 6: 2, 6: 1.

Kasatkina's successful start was both unexpected and predictable at the same time.

For her, this season was going very badly - before the pandemic, the Russian woman won only three matches in the main draw of the WTA tournaments, and then lost in the first match at the US Open.

But at a recent tournament in Rome, Kasatkina qualified for the 1/8 finals and could not beat Victoria Azarenka only because she twisted her leg.

She demonstrated that Kasatkina is still strong enough on the ground.

Although the score of the match with Tan can be called devastating, it began not easy for the Russian woman.

Immediately after the break, she tried to hold her serve for about 15 minutes and could not do it.

The rivals then exchanged games on someone else's serve, after which the owner of the wild card suddenly stopped resisting.

Kasatkina won eight games in a row, in three of them without losing a single point at the reception.

The Russian woman finished the match with a triple matchball, which she realized on the first try.

Further Kasatkin will face a more serious test than the 238th racket of the world.

In the second round, she will be played by Belarusian Arina Sobolenko, who has the eighth seed.

At the start of Roland Garros she outplayed American Jessica Pegula in two sets.

Return of Kudermetova to the victorious rails

The third day of Roland Garros ended with another match between the Russian tennis player and the Frenchwoman, who received an invitation from the organizers.

Veronica Kudermetova defeated Pauline Parmentier, who played at the home Grand Slam tournament for the 16th time.

Parmentier has not won a single match of the WTA tour this year, while Kudermetova was at least noticeable before the coronavirus pandemic.

After the resumption of the season, the Russian woman also never won, but a meeting with a rival, inferior to her by more than a hundred positions in the world rankings, made it possible to correct this defect.

Already in the first set, Kudermetova was able to take six games in a row, answering two lost at the very beginning.

Parmentier managed to complete only two actively won rallies and earned about two-thirds of her points only thanks to the mistakes of her opponent.

In the second set, the Frenchwoman was able to make two breaks, but this did not help her save the match.

The meeting ended with a score of 6: 2, 6: 3 in favor of the native of Kazan.

Kudermetova became the fifth Russian woman to qualify for the second round of Roland Garros.

The last time such a representation in the women's Grand Slam tournament was a little over a year ago at the previous French Open.

Defeat Samsonova from the champion AusOpen

The draw for the 125th racket of the world Lyudmila Samsonova could hardly be called successful.

In the first round, she won the reigning Australian Open champion Sophia Kenin, representing the United States.

Still, for the Russian woman, it was not the worst option.

This season Kenin had only one meeting with Victoria Azarenka on clay and could not win a single game against the Belarusian.

So Samsonova still had a chance to create a sensation.

In the first set, however, she did not use it.

The 21-year-old tennis player made six double mistakes at once, which only helped Kenin feel more confident at the reception.

The game ended with a score of 6: 4 in favor of the American, after which the match had to be interrupted for an hour due to rain.

During the break, Samsonova never figured out how to improve her serve, but she became much more assertive in the rallies.

The Russian took the lead with a score of 5: 1 and filed for the set on the second attempt.

In the decisive game, Samsonova immediately took the lead with a break, but Kenin won six of the next seven games necessary to win.

In the second round, Romanian Anna Bogdan will be waiting for the Australian Open champion, and the Russian woman will try to win her first match at the Grand Slam tournaments next season.

Dyachenko's quick departure

Vitalia Dyachenko followed Samsonova out of the single net.

The Russian woman, ranked 116 in the world rankings, lost to the finalist of Roland Garros in 2018 Sloane Stevens from the USA.

She, unlike Kenin, has always been a clear favorite on the ground and has definitely entered at least the third round since 2012.

The fact that Dyachenko would not be easy to resist Stevens on her favorite surface became clear already from the first game.

The Russian tennis player immediately gave up her serve dry.

In the following games, she periodically imposed a fight, but still not so serious as to change the course of the match.

At what point did Dyachenko fail again, and she lost 11 points in a row.

Stevens won with a score of 6: 4, 6: 4, spending 66 minutes on the match.