PARIS
\nReigning champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame a minor blip to reach the French Open third round on Wednesday as women\u2019s title rivals Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka made short work of their opponents. Second seed Alcaraz came through 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 against Hungarian Fabian Marozsan to earn his 17th win in 18 matches on clay this season.
\n\u201cSecond set, he started to play better and he didn\u2019t miss a lot so it was a little bit difficult to deal with his game,\u201d said Alcaraz.\u201dI\u2019m really happy I stayed strong and refreshed myself. In the third set, I started to play better and better which helped me have a really good last two sets.\u201d Alcaraz, a four-time Grand Slam winner, goes on to face Bosnian journeyman Damir Dzumhur for a place in the last 16.
\nIn the women\u2019s draw, Swiatek continued her bid for a fourth straight Roland Garros crown as she outclassed fellow former US Open champion Emma Raducanu. The Pole beat Raducanu 6-1, 6-2 to make it five wins in as many meetings with the Briton.
\nShe racked up her 23rd consecutive victory at Roland Garros to improve her career record at the tournament to 37-2. Swiatek is bidding to become the first woman to win four consecutive French Open titles since Suzanne Lenglen 102 years ago.
\nThe 23-year-old arrived in Paris under a slight cloud, having not reached a WTA final since lifting the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen last year, but has made serene progress through the first two rounds.\u201d
\nHonestly, I just love playing here. This place inspires me and that makes me work harder,\u201d said Swiatek, who also captured the trophy as a teenager in 2020. The fifth seed will play Romania\u2019s Jaqueline Cristian for a place in the last 16.
\nSwiatek\u2019s slide down the rankings has left her in the same half of the draw as world number one Sabalenka, last year\u2019s runner-up Jasmine Paolini and Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen. Sabalenka shook off a sluggish start to blow past Switzerland\u2019s Jil Teichmann. After dropping serve early in the first set, Sabalenka won 11 of the final 12 games to power to a 6-3, 6-1 win.
\n\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what the scoreboard says, she really made me work for every point,\u201d said Sabalenka, who has conceded just five games through two rounds.
\nThe Belarusian has never reached the French Open final and is hoping to banish the memories of a painful quarter-final loss to Mirra Andreeva in 2024. Paolini moved into the third round as she brushed aside Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-3 to stretch her winning streak to eight matches following her triumph at the Italian Open.
\nThe fourth seed from Italy advances to play Ukraine\u2019s Yuliia Starodubtseva.Zheng punched her ticket to the last 32 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Colombia\u2019s Emiliana Arango. The Chinese star faces another Grand Slam debutant in the next round, 18-year-old Victoria Mboko of Canada.
\nOther seeds to progress included former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, Elina Svitolina and Amanda Anisimova. Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open winner, rallied to win in three sets, but Russian 11th seed Diana Shnaider lost to Ukraine\u2019s Dayana Yastremska.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS Reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame a minor blip to reach the French Open third round on Wednesday as women\u2019s title rivals Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka made short work of their opponents. Second seed Alcaraz came through 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 against Hungarian Fabian Marozsan to earn his 17th win in 18 matches on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-481744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n