Sharapova to play Pliskova
Originally published on 31/05/18 00:00
Day Five at Roland Garros
Karolina Pliskova will meet Maria Sharapova in the third round; both women won their matches today. Pliskova beat Lucie Safarova and Sharapova beat Donna Vekic. Talking after the match about how their games matchup Pliskova said I believe I have better serve, so I think that can be the deciding key.” Pliskova served 13 aces in her match today.
Fifteenth seed Coco Vandeweghe was defeated by Lesia Tsurneko, but twelfth seed Angelique Kerber continues to slide quietly through the draw. Today she beat Ana Bogdan. Serena Williams defeated Ashleigh Barty 3-6 6-3 6-4
2016 Roland Garros champion Garbine Muguruza came through in straight sets against Frenchwoman Fiona Ferro. Perhaps not playing her best tennis she said, “Of course if you play good and beautiful, everybody feels better, but at the end just counts the result.” In a repeat of their 2016 semi final, she meets Sam Stosur next.
Heather Watson was defeated in her second round match by Belgium’s Elise Mertens. Bernarda Pera waits for Mertens in the third round. Semi-finalist at this year’s Australian Open, Mertens trains at the Kim Clijsters Academy in Bree. Pera has risen 200 ranking places in the last year and recently said in Madrid. "I was born on clay, played on clay my whole life, so I feel pretty good."
This promises to be an interesting third round match.
Men
Dominic Thiem continued his Roland Garros journey with a 6-2 2-6 6-4 6-4 victory against 19-year-old Stefanos Tsistipas. The match that started on Wednesday night but was finished today was a tough test for the seventh seed.
“It was a very good match, I think. The key was, for sure, that I went home yesterday with a one-set lead. It was really important,” he said “The first set today was very, very good tennis from me. Very focused and everything. But still, the key for the match was the third set yesterday night.”
Thiem’s next opponent will be Italian Matteo Berrettini who beat former Roland Garros semi-finalist Ernests Gulbis.
Rafael Nadal made it look pretty easy as he cruised past Guido Pella in straight sets, dropping four games in just over two hours. Richard Gasquet is his third round opponent. The Frenchman will need to find something special if he is finally to win a match against Rafa, 15 times of trying and yet to claim a set. “I don't want to get on the court and say it's Rafael Nadal. He's extraordinary. We all know he is. So I'm not going to repeat that all day long.” said Gasquet.
Britons Kyle Edmund and Cameron Norrie were both in action. Norrie who finished his match today against Frenchman Lucas Pouille couldn’t keep the momentum of his set winning form last night and went down in four sets. “I fought hard and played some of my best tennis today, and I’m just proud of how I fought and how I dealt with everything,” he told British reporters.
Sixteenth seed Edmund won his match against world No 45 Marton Fucsovics 6-0 1-6 6-2 6-3. He will play Fabio Fognini in the third round on Saturday
There were also wins for Marin Cilic, Juan Martin del Potro, John Isner, Kevin Anderson and Mischa Zverev
Denis Shapovalov (pictured below) was defeated by German left-hander Maximilian Marterer. The 19-year old Canadian who earlier on this week talked about his love-hate relationship with clay, made 82 unforced errors. “Obviously I'm disappointed with the loss,” he said, “but I'm only 19, so not every week is going to be a semi-finals of a big tournament."
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