French Open: Carlos Alcaraz progresses to fourth round, Hurkacz and Dimitrov’s games suspended

Carlos Alcaraz beat Sebastian Korda in the third round of Roland Garros on Friday, May 31 at Court Philippe-Chatrier to seal his berth in the last 16.

The Spaniard, who came into the tournament nursing an arm injury, dominated the 27th seed Korda beating him in three straight sets to set up a victory with a scoreline of 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3.

The two-time Grand Slam champion broke Korda’s serve in the first set to take the lead. However, the American made a good comeback in the second set as he tested Alcaraz in a closely-fought encounter. However, the world number three-ranked Spaniard held his nerve to clinch the tiebreak.

Having doubled his lead, Alcaraz was high on confidence which was reflected in his dominant gameplay in the third set which he won quite comfortably to progress to the next round. After qualifying for the second week of a Grand Slam tournament for the eighth consecutive time, the Spaniard stated that he was feeling better every day and thanked the crowd for their support.

“I feel amazing, feel great playing on this court. Obviously I have great memories here. Great matches I’ve played before. I’m feeling better and better every match I play. The crowd was amazing. Every day it’s even better. I’m excited to play in the second week in Paris again. Hopefully I’ll keep going,” Alcaraz said after the game.

Hubert Hurkacz and Grigor Dimitrov’s matches suspended

Meanwhile, eighth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz saw his third-round game against Denis Shapovalov suspended due to rain. The duo was in the middle of a mouth-watering clash having one set each to their names with the game building up to an exciting finish.

After winning the first set with a scoreline of 6-3, Hurkacz lost control of the game as he let Shapovalov come back in an intense second set with the Canadian winning the tie-breaker (7-6). However, the Polish managed to take a lead in the third set having won two games out of three when the rain decided to interrupt.

Tenth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov also had his game suspended due to inclement weather after winning the first set against the Belgian Zizou Bergs. The scoreline read 6-3, 2-1 in favour of Dimitrov at the time of interruption. Both the suspended matches will be continued on Saturday, June 1.