French Open Day 7 Wrap: Swiatek, Rune, Zverev advance to Round 4, Taylor Fritz knocked out after 4-set battle
Day 7 of the French Open dished out some powerful performances on Saturday, 3 June.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek put terror in her opponent smashing her 6-0, 6-0 in the Third Round of the tournament. The defending champion was too good for world no. 80.
Swiatek double bageled (6-0, 6-0) her opponent Xinyu Wang, World No. 80 from China who was featuring in her maiden Grand Slam third-round match.
It took just 52 minutes for Iga Swiatek at the Court Philippe-Chatrier to get the sensational victory as the tournament organisers scheduled a doubles match at the iconic court to make use of the time before the night session biggie between Alexander Zverev and Frances Tiafoe.
Gauff Wins
In other women’s singles match World No. 6 Coco Gauff survived a wobble in a 3-set battle against 16-year-old Russian wunderkid Mirra Andreeva.
Playing in the Third Round, Coco Gauff lost the opening set in a tie-breaker, but then raced through the next two sets to clinch a 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-1 in 2 hours and 3 minutes.
Rune Rules
The men’s division served up a big win for Denmark’s Holger Rune who reached the Fourth Round of the French Open by decimating Argentine qualifier Genaro Alberto Olivieri 6-4 6-1 6-3 on Saturday, 3 June.
Rune, fresh after the lucky break in the Second Round of the tournament after getting a walkover from Gael Monfils. The sixth seed showed his quality throughout the match and made it look like child’s play.
“I played my first round on Tuesday and unfortunately I could not play the second round against Gael. I wish him all the best, he is an incredible player. I was super happy with my level today,” Rune said. “It was difficult and very windy. Olivieri played a good tournament so I had to be sharp.”
Wild Knocked Out
Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild who has shot to fame after knocking out second seed Daniil Medvedev in the First Round of the competition could not raise his level on Saturday, and lost to 27th seed Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka in a marathon 5-set encounter.
Nishioka pulled off an incredible fightback winning the Third Round 3-6, 7-6 (8), 2-6, 6-4, 6-0.
While Rune dominated his set, last year’s finalists Casper Ruud took his own time to get into his element.
He beat China’s Zhang Zhizhen 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 at Court Suzanne Lenglen. It took Ruud two hours and 35 minutes to close out the match.
Fritz Departs
9th seed Taylor Fritz was shown the door in the men’s singles third round at French Open 2023 on Saturday, June 3. The World No. 8 was bidding to reach his maiden Round of 16 at the clay-court Grand Slam but his dreams were dashed in 4 sets in Paris.
One of the biggest upsets of the night was from reigning Wimbledon champion and World No. 4 Elena Rybakina. She was forced to withdraw ahead of her women’s singles third-round match due to illness. Rybakina said she picked up a viral illness.
At the time of writing. Ons Jabuer and Olga Danilovic were engaged in a three-setter. Jabuer dropped the first set and then made a comeback. At the time of writing, she was leading the third and deciding set 5-2.
Zverev Advances
Alexander Zverev made his way through to Round 4 after beating USA’s Frances Tiafoe 3-6, 7-6, 6-1, 7-6 at Court Philippe Chatrier.