Svitolina cruises into French Open fourth round, Garcia gets past Mertens
Elina Svitolina defeats Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets on Day 6 at Roland-Garros on Friday. Next up for Svitolina is Caroline Garcia, a three-set winner over Elise Mertens.
Caroline Garcia, Roland-Garros 2020, September 27
The results we expected
No 3 seed Elina Svitolina kicked off Friday’s action on Court Suzanne-Lenglen with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over No 27 Ekaterina Alexandrova.
In the only other all-seeded matchup of the day, No 1 Simona Halep destroyed Amanda Anisimova 6-1, 6-0.
Fifth-seed Kiki Bertens is also through to the fourth round with ease, defeating Katerina Siniakova 6-2, 6-2.
The surprises of the day
World No 131 Nadia Podoroska had to qualify just to get into the main draw. Fast forward one week and the Argentine suddenly finds herself in the fourth round of a Grand Slam. Podoroska knocked off Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova 6-3, 6-2 on Friday. Schmiedlova had previously upset US Open runner-up Victoria Azarenka in easy straight sets.
No 20 seed Maria Sakkari crashed out of Roland-Garros at the third round. After failing to convert two match points in the second set tiebreak, Martina Trevisan picked up the momentum to finish out the upset 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-3.
The hard-fought battles of the day
Caroline Garcia treated the noisiest crowd of the week inside Court Philipp-Chatrier to a 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 triumph over No 16 Elise Mertens.
There’s no place like home. 🇫🇷@CaroGarcia turns it around to win the whirlwind three-setter over Elise Mertens: 1-6, 6-4, 7-5.#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/4hYCNKSidn
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) October 2, 2020
- Also read: Roland Garros day 3 recap
- Also read: Tsitsipas and Rublev recover from two sets down
- Also read: Djokovic sounds title warning
- Also read: Covid-19, rain, cold, heavy balls: A Roland-Garros like no other
