Around the grounds at the Porte D'Auteuil venue as second round matches began
©Philippe Montigny / FFTStefanos Tsitsipas on his way to defeat on Court Simonne-Mathieu
Roland-Garros said goodbye to two former finalists in the men’s singles on Wednesday as Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas both lost second round matches.
First it was 2022 and 2023 runner-up Ruud who fell at the second hurdle, hampered by a left knee injury on his way to a four-set defeat to Portuguese No.1 Nuno Borges.
And later on Court Simonne-Mathieu the 2021 runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas was bundled out in four sets by Italian qualifier and world No.167 Matteo Gigante 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.
In contrast, other top seeds looked very impressive on Day 4 as the big names started to click through the gears midway through the first week.
Iga Swiatek fired a warning shot to her rivals by thrashing Emma Raducanu 6-1, 6-2 - her 23rd successive RG victory as she goes in search of a fifth women’s singles trophy.
Once top seed Aryna Sabalenka had recovered from a break down in the first set against Swiss Jil Teichmann, she looked strong on her way to a 6-3, 6-1 victory and a third round meeting with talented young Serb Olga Danilovic, who beat Danielle Collins on Court 6.
In-form fourth seed Jasmine Paolini enjoyed returning to the scene of her Olympic doubles gold medal from last summer as she put on a show on Chatrier to beat Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-3.
On the men’s side, Carlos Alcaraz dropped a set but overall looked pretty smooth in seeing off Fabian Marozsan on the same court, while Lorenzo Musetti raced through on Simonne-Mathieu with a 6-4, 6-0, 6-4 win over Daniel Galan.
Later, Holger Rune cruised through his night session match against American Emilio Nava. Once he'd snatched a tight second set tiebreak the result was never in doubt and he ran out a 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-3 winner.
No.12 seed Tommy Paul gets the Roland-Garros Harry Houdini escapology award after he recovered from two sets to love down against Marton Fucsovics on a rowdy Court 14. The Hungarian was two points from winning when he served at 5-3 in the fourth before Paul eventually wore him down in five sets.
Young Canadian Victoria Mboko’s incredible journey in Paris goes from strength to strength after she won her fifth successive straight-sets match. She picked up three victories in qualifying and another two in the main draw on her Grand Slam debut.
The focus switches to the other sides of the men’s and women’s draws on Day 5 on Thursday with some fabulous tennis in store.
It could be the day when French fans say goodbye to Richard Gasquet as he takes on top seed Jannik Sinner in the final tournament of his career.
It’s a great ticket on Lenglen too where you can find Arthur Fils, Coco Gauff, as well as Novak Djokovic’s appointment with French entertainer Corentin Moutet.
Speaking of French entertainers, the night match sees the return of 38-year-old Gael Monfils to Chatrier as he takes on the world No.5 Jack Draper.
ROLAND-GARROS
19 May - 8 June 2025
