BEVERLY HILLS, October 1, (THEWILL) –Â The Roland Garros spectacle continued with Day 5 of the French Open. Some exciting matches lived up to expectations but some were utterly one-sided affairs as the results show. Play began on Court Philippe-Chatrier under sunny skies with temperature hovering around 15 degrees Celsius and showers forecasted for later in the day.
Here are the highlights for the 5th day.
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The men’s top seeded player, Novak Djokovic, was on course for what will be his 18th Grand Slam title as he cruised past his opponent the Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis 6-1 6-2 6-2 on Thursday. The victory qualified Djokovic for the third round. It was the Serbian’s 70th victory at Roland Garros and placed him second only to the Swiss maestro Roger Federer on the all-time list.
In another game for the day, Greek tennis player and fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was just as clinical against Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas. The game ended 6-1 6-4 6-2 in favour of Tsitsipas. It was an end to a stormy run for Cuevas who had rallied from two sets down to beat his Spanish challenger Jaume Munar in the first round.
It was the end of the road too for Canadian player Denis Shapovalov. In his match against the Spanish Roberto Carballes Baena, Shapovalov had twice served for the match. He lost both times as the match ended 7-5 6-7(5) 6-3 3-6 8-6 in Baena’s favour.
South African tennis player, Lloyd Harris also left the Open no thanks to his loss to the Italian Matteo Berrettini. The latter was able to equal his best Roland Garros result by qualifying for the third round a second time with this victory over the South African. It was a 6-4 4-6 6-2 6-3 victory for Berrettini.
Russia’s Andrey Rublev, the 13th seed of the Open fought bravely to overcome a mid-match wobble and beat his Spanish opponent Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-5 6-1 3-6 6-1.
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Jelena ostapenko, the Latvian tennis player, exhibited snapshots of the form that took her to win the 2017 French Open. She powered past her opponent, none other than the second-seeded Karolina Pliskova from Czech Republic. The unseeded Latvian struck 27 winners and broke her Czech rival’s serve five times to register her first victory over Pliskova on clay. It was a 6-4 6-2 win.
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Karolina Pliskova’s twin, Kristyna, was also dumped out of the Open on the same day. She was up against former clay champion, the Spanish-Venezuelan Garbine Muguruza. Muguruza sealed the victory with a straight sets win of 6-3 6-2.
In another testy game of the day, Australian Open winner, Sofia Kenin from the US, made her work difficult for herself by surrendering the opening set 3-6. She needed to dig deep and switch gears to take the game in triumph and qualify for the third round. It ended 3-6 6-3 6-2.
The other American in contention for the day, Sloane Stephens was not so fortunate. Although Stevens was able to take the second set, that effort was not enough to prevent her loss against Paula Badosa from Spain who took the match 6-4 4-6 6-2.
