The Roland Garros third round has been decided and the 32 men and women are ready to pit their tennis racquets into action tomorrow. It has become clear that the elite are holding fort over the rest of the field.
We were excited when Venus Williams and Jelena Ostapenko lost first round matches, together with Sam Querrey, because it looked as though it may be a tournament full of surprises.
Well as we approach the middle weekend, the top ten men’s seeds remain intact, as do the top ten women’s seeds - apart from the Ostapenko and Williams opening fails. Not many shocks at all, but some close calls which have kept the crowds on their toes.
Grand Slam champions left in the respective draws are:
Rafa Nadal Caroline Wozniacki Marin Cilic Garbiñe Muguruza
Juan Martin del Potro Petra Kvitova
Novak Djokovic Sloane Stephens
Angie Kerber
Maria Sharapova
Samantha Stosur
Serena Williams
Second round matches on Thursday included the Serena Williams battle with Ash Barty (17).
Th opening set was all Barty, as the Aussie lost only three points off her first serve, and Serena threw in 12 unforced errors.
Ash immediately broke the Williams serve in set two, taking further advantage of the American consistently finding the net.
However the match turned in the next game, when Serena won her way to break point, and Ash made a crucial error. At the net, with all the court available for a forehand put away, she decided to feed the Serena forehand rather than use the empty court right in front of her.
Serena hit a withering forehand past the Australian to break back, triggering a four game run and the set win.
The decider was a set where serve dominated, except for the third game in which Serena broke Barty’s delivery for only the second time in the match. It was enough for the champion to grab victory 3-6 6-3 6-4.
The comeback queen needed to display all her wares, and she did as she has done many times over her illustrious career.
In a quality match, Ash Barty was clearly disappointed, but she played possibly the greatest player, male or female, of all time without any fear, and forced Serena to pull her best out of her bag of tricks.
Other seeds to fall by the wayside:
Denis Shapovalov (24) beaten by Maximilian Marterer 5-7 7-6(4) 7-5 6-4
CoCo Vandeweghe (15) defeated by Lesia Tsurenko 3-6 6-4 6-0
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (30) beaten by Samantha Stosur 6-2
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