World number one Carlos Alcaraz overcame a second set blip to defeat Japan’s Taro Daniel and reach the French Open last 32 on Wednesday.
The Spanish star came through 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 against his 112th-ranked opponent and will face Canada’s Denis Shapovalov for a place in the fourth round.
Alcaraz, 20, is bidding to add the Roland Garros title to the US Open he won in 2022.
“I’m very happy with my level. The wind meant conditions were really difficult so I had to adjust as much as possible, I was very focused on each shot,” said Alcaraz.
The victory gave Alcaraz a 22nd win from 24 on clay in 2023, a run which has yielded titles on the surface in Buenos Aires, Madrid and Barcelona.
“Taro was playing great. He is a really tough player and this year he has won matches against great players,” said Alcaraz who is top seed at a Grand Slam for the first time.
Yesterday, he fired 46 winners past New York-born Daniel.
Shapovalov, the 26th seed, saw off Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi in four sets to reach the third round in Paris for the first time.
Meanwhile Stefanos Tsitsipas believes he’ll need to have the mental and physical strength of an elite, battle-hardened special forces commando to break through to a maiden Grand Slam title.
The Greek world number five came agonisingly close to winning the French Open in 2021 when he surrendered a two-sets lead to lose in five to Novak Djokovic.
It’s a memory which still haunts him, especially after losing to the Serbian superstar again in January in the final of the Australian Open.
“There are a few guys that can play good under pressure, especially in big, tight moments, and you have to have the mental strength of a Navy SEAL to pull it through,” said Tsitsipas, hailing the crack US special forces unit.
Tsitsipas made the French Open last 32 for the fourth year in succession yesterday with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 victory over Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena.
As well as making two Grand Slam finals, the 24-year-old has fallen at the semi-finals on four occasions – twice to bitter rival Daniil Medvedev (2020 and 2021 Australian Open) and to Djokovic (2020 French Open) and Rafael Nadal (2019 Australian Open).
In his quest, he has resorted to consulting Rafael’s Nadal autobiography because he “kind of shows you that anyone can do it”.
“You have to have the physique of a marathon runner, the lungs of a marathon runner. You have to have the power of a football player,” added Tsitsipas when asked what constitutes a Grand Slam champion.
“There are so many little components that you have to link up in order to make this unbelievable player where you allow yourself to be unstoppable.”
Tsitsipas racked up his 50th Grand Slam win in the first round against Jiri Vesely while yesterday’s victory against Carballes Baena was his 20th at Roland Garros.
“I get excited when I see personal records being kind of set and broken,” he added.
Another of Tsitsipas’s ambitions is to deliver a first Davis Cup title to Greece.
However, he is his country’s only player in the world’s top 500 so if an unlikely triumph in the prestigious team event is ever to be secured, it would require Greece to have a reliable doubles pairing.
That’s where his brother Petros, who is Greece’s top-ranked doubles player, enters the equation.
The Tsitispas brothers were beaten in the first round in Paris on Tuesday, losing in a final set tiebreak to Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer.
“Trust me, it sucks. To be losing that with your brother, it sucks more than usually,” said Stefanos.
“I’m doing this for my brother. I don’t think I would have done this for anyone else. One of our own personal dreams is winning Davis Cup together. Doing that with your brother is probably the most beautiful thing you can witness on a tennis court.”
In the women’s section , world number two Aryna Sabalenka cruised into the third round yesterday with a straight-sets win over fellow Belarusian Iryna Shymanovich.
The Australian Open champion took some time to get the measure of her opponent, who had never won a main-draw WTA match before this tournament, before wrapping up a 7-5, 6-2 victory. Sabalenka will face either Poland’s Magdalena Frech or Russian Kamilla Rakhimova in the last 32.
French hopes of a Roland Garros singles’ champion were all but extinguished as Russian Anna Blinkova sent fifth seed Caroline Garcia tumbling out with a 4-6 6-3 7-5 second-round victory yesterday.
Blinkova, who had already knocked Garcia out in Paris in 2019, prevailed on her ninth match point to end a tussle that lasted nearly three hours.
The world number 56 double faulted twice on match point as nerves got to her, but she eventually ended it with a powerful serve to set up a meeting with Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.
With Garcia gone, the French women are without a seed in the singles’ draw while none of the French men were among the top-ranked.
On a sun-kissed Court Philippe Chatrier, where most of the ticket holders had opted for lunch over tennis, Garcia broke for a 2-1 lead in a strong start to her bid to claim consecutive wins on clay for the first time this season.
She did not face a single break point in the first set and stole Blinkova’s serve in the first game of the next set, only for her Russian opponent to break straight back.
Garcia conceded another break in the fourth game with a double fault and a third one in the fifth as Blinkova blitzed through the set despite facing some late resistance.
Blinkova pounced early in the decider and served for the match at 5-4, only for Garcia to save match points to level for 5-5. She saved other match points at 6-5 after dropping her serve but Blinkova finally got a first serve in to end Garcia’s campaign.