Thursday, 1 June 2017

Jabeur makes history at RG

Day Four of Roland Garros was historic but Dominika Cibulkova will not be celebrating. The sixth seed lost her second round match to Tunisia's Ons Jabeur.
Ranked 114, Jabeur was a lucky loser from qualifying and becomes the first Arab woman to reach the third round of a Grsnd Slam tournament.

The 2011 Roland Garros junior champion was in charge from the outset, using the drop shot on many occasions to great effect, and hitting lots of clean winners.
Jabeur broke Cibulkova in the ninth game of set one and closed it out 6-4.

Cibulkova struck back, streaking out to a 3-1 lead in set two.  There it ended for the Slovak whose lead in form to Paris has been less than impressive.  Five straight games for Jabeur and her enjoyment of Roland Garros continues, Swiss 30th seed Timea Bacsinszky her next challenge.

Reigning champ Garbine Muguruza dropped the opening set to future star Anett Kontaveit but recovered to keep her hopes of successive titles alive.
Petra Kvitova's hopes of a honeymoon return to competitive tennis was stopped by Bethanie Mattek-Sands in two tie break sets, but the grass of Wimbledon is looking attractive for the Czech star.

18 year old American Catherine Bellis knocked out 18th seed and last start winner Kiki Bertens in three sets, but other seeds were more comfortable in travelling to the third round, especially Caroline Wozniacki who selfishly won all 12 games against Canada's Francoise Abanda.

French fans were sad to see the end of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's chances at lifting this year's trophy, with his loss to unheralded Renzo Olivo in four sets.
Better fortune for fellow Frnchman Lucas Pouille who dispatched Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in three sets.

Nadal, Djokovic and Thiem breezed through their matches with Haase, Sousa and Bolelli.  Ivo Karlovic was, with Tsonga, the only seed to fall, losing in straight sets to Horacio Zeballos from Argentina.

On the doubles front a big upset occurred - Australians Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson defeated the French second seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.

Kyrgios is back on court for more serious competition tomorrow, taking on another big server South African Kevin Anderson.  Expect a lot of short points.

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