Defending champion Coco Gauff, top seed Aryna Sabalenka and former World No. 1 Naomi Osaka reached the French Open third round with hard-fought victories.
Key Points
- Coco Gauff battled past Mayar Sherif to move into the French Open third round.
- It took one hour and 50 minutes for Gauff to quell the challenge of the Egyptian qualifier.
- Naomi Osaka reached the third round at Roland Garros for the first time since 2019.
- Osaka will next face 16th seed American Iva Jovic, who overcame compatriot Emma Navarro.
- Top seed Aryna Sabalenka too moved into the third round beating France's Elsa Jacquemot.
Defending champion Coco Gauff defeated Egyptian qualifier Mayar Sherif 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday to punch her ticket for the French Open third round.
The American, who landed her 80th career main draw victory at a Grand Slam, never hit top form, with her opponent offering some dogged resistance in the first set and keeping her off balance.
"It was a physical tough match. I was really tested today. It took a lot of strength today," Gauff said.
"I will be focusing on getting more my rhythm back because I did not have it today."
Sherif tried to rattle her opponent with moon balls early on but Gauff quickly raced to a 3-0 lead.
Her bright start looked to be fizzling out when Sherif, attempting to become the first woman from her country to reach the third round of a Grand Slam in the Open era, regained the break.
Sherif had several chances to draw level in a sixth game that lasted more than 13 minutes but Gauff recovered her composure just in time to protect her lead and bag the set with an ace after an hour and three minutes.
The pair traded early breaks in the second set, with Sherif punching the air when she earned hers to draw 2-2.
But she could not keep up the hunt and Gauff pulled ahead with another break, sealing the win on her first opportunity after an hour and 50 minutes.
She will next face either Britain's Katie Boulter or Austria's Anastasia Potapova.
Osaka made to work hard to reach third round
Former world number one Naomi Osaka made another dazzling entry at the French Open on Thursday, but she was made to work hard to avoid the exit door in a 7-6(1), 6-4 victory over Croatian Donna Vekic in the second round.
Osaka, who wore a sequined waistcoat blouse and black mesh train over her layered yellow-brown and gold match dress in the opening round, arrived for the contest with Vekic in a white floor-length flared trail over her outfit.
On another blazing day in Paris, the Japanese player traded breaks freely with Vekic in the opening set on Court Simonne Mathieu, before finding her best form during the tiebreak to prevail for the loss of only one point.
Down a set, Paris Olympics silver medallist Vekic began to deploy a series of drop shots to trouble Osaka early in the second set but her challenge fizzled out as she surrendered her serve in the ninth game.
Osaka saved a break point in the next game to close out the win in one hour and 50 minutes, reaching the third round for the first time since 2019.
She will face 16th seed Iva Jovic in the third round, after the American beat compatriot Emma Navarro 6-0, 6-3 earlier.
Italian 10th seed Flavio Cobolli beat China's Wu Yibing 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the French Open's third round for the second year straight.
Sabalenka survives first set wobble to beat Jacquemot
Top seed Aryna Sabalenka overcame a first-set scare to beat France's Elsa Jacquemot 7-5, 6-2 and move into the third round.
The Belarusian, last year's losing finalist, was made to work hard for about an hour, with the local hero delighting home fans with several spectacular winners.
A four-time Grand Slam champion, Sabalenka is still looking to land her first French Open title.
The world number one earned an early break with a powerful forehand to go 3-1 up but Jacquemot broke straight back.
On a day when the men's world number one Jannik Sinner crashed out in five sets to Juan Manuel Cerundolo, Sabalenka had to dig deep in the first set against the world number 67.
Sabalenka had set point at 5-4 on Jacquemot's serve but the French player, who had the crowd on their feet at times, managed to match Sabalenka's power with superb precision and level.
The top seed kept her composure and won the first set on her third set point, and she never looked back.
She grabbed a break at the start of the second set and raced to a 3-0 lead, giving Jacquemot, who was quickly running out of steam, no chance of a comeback.
Sabalenka will next face Australia's Daria Kasatkina.
Shelton, Tsitsipas knocked out
American Ben Shelton's hopes of taking advantage of Sinner's exit were short-lived though as the fifth seed was taken out 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 by Belgium's Raphael Collignon.
Amanda Anisimova, a Paris semi-finalist as a teenager in 2019, went through after her opponent Julia Grabher retired with illness after being blanked in the opening set.
There was joy for French fans when teenager Moise Kouame defeated Paraguayan Adolfo Daniel Vallejo 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (10-8) in a gripping contest lasting nearly five hours and he credited Alcaraz for inspiring him.
The 17-year-old Kouame, ranked 318th in the world and playing in his first Grand Slam courtesy of a wildcard, became the fifth-youngest man to make it to the third round at Roland Garros since the professional era began in 1968.
Matteo Arnaldi beat former runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 while Matteo Berrettini produced a vintage display to knock out French 22nd seed Arthur Rinderknech in straight sets in the late action on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
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