Paris: Elina Svitolina’s French Open breakthrough was again put on hold on Friday when the Ukrainian fourth seed was knocked out 6-3, 7-5 in the third round by Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu.
The 23-year-old Svitolina had been tipped as one of the potential winners for the second year in a row after winning the Italian Open, but she never found her groove on Court One.
She dropped serve five times and made 29 unforced errors, bowing out on the first match point when she buried another forehand into the net.
Buzarnescu, who reached the final in Prague on clay last month, next faces American 13th seed Madison Keys, the 2017 US Open runner-up. Keys overcame a second-set wobble to beat Japan’s Naomi Osaka 6-1, 7-6 (7).
Former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki whizzed into the fourth round with a brutal 6-0, 6-3 demolition of local favourite Pauline Parmentier.
The Danish second seed barely broke sweat to set up a meeting with Russian Daria Kasatkina. A woeful Parmentier managed only six points in the opening set, four of them being gifted by Wozniacki's unforced errors. There was a brief smile on wildcard Parmentier's face when she finally won three games -- after losing the first 11.
Wozniacki quickly regained control and wrapped it up on the second match point when the Frenchwoman sent a forehand long -- her 27th unforced error of the match.
Among men, former champion Novak Djokovic wore down obdurate Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut to grind out a 6-4, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory in the third round.
Still fighting to find the form that took him to 12 majors, Djokovic huffed and puffed and demolished a racket in anger near the end of the second set, before regaining his composure to set up a last 16 clash with Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco.
It was never comfortable for the 31-year-old Serb, though, and he found himself in dire trouble in the third set when dropping serve to love at 3-4. He fell back on his old survival instincts, however, breaking back in the following game before playing a solid tiebreak to move to within a set of victory.
Thirteenth seed Bautista Agut, playing just a few days after the death of his mother, lost some belief in a fourth set played out in drizzle and Djokovic quickly wrapped up victory. After consoling his opponent at the net Djokovic saluted the crowd who raised their umbrellas in approval.
Grigor Dimitrov bit the dust as the fourth seed was outplayed by Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco in the third round, the Bulgarian losing 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-4.
Dimitrov was pushed to five sets by American Jared Donaldson in the previous round and once he failed to convert four set points in the 12th game of the opener against Verdasco and lost the ensuing tie-break, he looked flat.
The aggressive left-handed Spaniard broke twice in the second set and although he allowed Dimitrov back from 4-2 in the third, he broke again to claim his third career win against the 27-year-old.
Verdasco has now reached the last 16 in Paris for the seventh time and will hope to finally break through that barrier having fallen at that stage on six occasions.
Second seed Alexander Zverev saved a match point on his way to a five-set win over Bosnian Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5, securing his first trip to the last 16 at Roland Garros.
The German Wunderkid, 21, looked to be on the brink of another disappointing early exit from a Grand Slam, with 26th seed Dzumhur serving for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set. But Zverev held his nerve to force a tiebreak, which he won comfortably.
Reuters
DAY V RESULTS
Men’s singles, Round II: Rafael Nadal (1, Esp) bt Guido Pella (Arg) 6-2, 6-1, 6-1; Richard Gasquet (27, Fra) bt Malek Jaziri (Tun) 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-0; Maximilian Marterer (Ger) bt Denis Shapovalov (24, Can) 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, 6-4; Diego Schwartzman (11, Arg) bt Adam Pavlasek (Cze) 6-1, 6-3, 6-1; Kevin Anderson (6, Rsa) bt Pablo Cuevas (Uru) 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4; Marin Cilic (3, Cro) bt Hubert Hurkacz (Pol) 6-2, 6-2, 6-7 (3-7), 7-5; Fabio Fognini (18, Ita) bt Elias Ymer (Swe) 6-4, 6-1, 6-2; Kyle Edmund (16, Gbr) bt Marton Fucsovics (Hun) 6-0, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3; John Isner (9, US) bt Horacio Zeballos (Arg) 6-7 (8-10), 7-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2; Albert Ramos-Vinolas (31, Esp) bt Casper Ruud (Nor) 6-4, 6-2, 6-4; Juan Martin del Potro (5, Arg) bt Julien Benneteau (Fra) 6-4, 6-3, 6-2; Dominic Thiem (7, Aut) bt Stefanos Tsitsipas (Gre) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4; Lucas Pouille (15, Fra) bt Cameron Norrie (Gbr) 6-2, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (3).
Women’s singles, Round II: Simona Halep (1, Rou) bt Taylor Townsend (US) 6-3, 6-1; Daria Gavrilova (24, Aus) bt Bernarda Pera (US) 5-7, 7-5, 6-3; Elise Mertens (16, Bel) bt Heather Watson (GBR) 6-3, 6-4; Angelique Kerber (12, Ger) bt Ana Bogdan (Rou) 6-2, 6-3; Kiki Bertens (18, Ned) bt Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Blr) 6-4, 6-2; Irina-Camelia Begu (Rou) bt Shuai Zhang (27, Chn) 6-3, 6-4; Caroline Garcia (7, Fra) bt Shuai Peng (Chn) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Garbine Muguruza (3, Esp) bt Fiona Ferro (Fra) 6-4, 6-3; Samantha Stosur (Aus) bt Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (30, Rus) 6-2, 7-6 (7-1); Magdalena Rybarikova (19, Svk) bt Belinda Bencic (Sui) 6-2, 6-4; Lesia Tsurenko (Ukr) bt Coco Vandeweghe (15, US) 3-6, 6-4, 6-0; Julia Goerges (11, Ger) bt Alison Van Uytvanck (Bel) 7-5, 7-6 (7-5); Serena Williams (US) bt Ashleigh Barty (17, Aus) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Maria Sharapova (28, Rus) bt Donna Vekic (Cro) 7-5, 6-4; Karolina Pliskova (6, Cze) bt Lucie Safarova (Cze) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Men’s doubles, Round II: Rohan Bopanna (13, Ind) and Benjamin Bonzi (13, Fra) bt Edouard Roger-Vasselin (Fra) and Gregoire Jacq (Fra) 6-1, 6-2.
Seeded players and Indians only
