Three of the favourites at Roland Garros this year made it through to the fourth round yesterday, in Carlos Alcaraz, Jannick Sinner and Stephanos Tsitsipas. All three players won in straight sets and looked in good-from heading into the back end of the tournament.
Third seeded Alcaraz defeated American Sebastion Korda, 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 in what was an entertaining display of the Spaniards talents. The 21-year-old finished with 38 winners to Korda’s 20, attacking the ball with confidence and playing some top shots from his forehand side.
Entering the tournament, Alcaraz had reportedly injured his right forearm which had left him with limited practice entering the clay-court season. He looks to be in good health thus far in the competition, with his arm seemingly not giving him any issues at the moment.
With the win, Alcaraz will move on to face either 15th-seeded American Ben Shelton or 21st-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime from Canada. The third-round match up between the two was suspended due to rain on Friday but will likely resume Saturday. Before the pause in the match Auger-Aliassime was serving for the first set up 5-4.
Alcaraz played his matches under a roof at Court Philippe-Chatrier, which is one of two courts with a retractable cover at Roland Garros.
The second seed Jannick Sinner made quick work of his third round match against unseeded Russian Pavel Kotov, winning 6-4 6-4 6-4. It was his third consecutive straight-sets win in Paris in which he looks like he could be the player to beat.
Neither Sinner nor Kotov held back with their groundstrokes in the clash but Sinner’s serve and ability to work the court was decisive in the victory. The Italian only had to save just one break point and completed the match with a 79% (41/52) win rate on his first serves.
Like Alcaraz, Sinner came into the tournament under the cloud of injury after skipping the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome due to hip problems. After receiving medical treatment Sinner said that his general match conditioning was now his only physical concern.
Sinner is not only looking to win his second major title, after lifting the Australian Open in January but also the No. 1 spot in the ATP Rankings. It would be the first time Sinner would have ever been at the top of the standings if he can reach the Final in Paris. Even if he falls short, Sinner would still move into top spot if Novak Djokovic does not reach the championship match.
In other news, Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas cruised past China’s Zhang Zhizhen 6-3 6-3 6-1 to reach the fourth round of the French Open for the sixth year in a row. The 2021 finalist wrapped up the match in just 91 minutes, setting up a meeting with Italian Matteo Arnaldi in the fourth round. Aranaldi had stunned sixth seed Andrey Rublev earlier on Friday.
The ninth-ranked Tsitsipas was precise in his shot-making and came out with momentum, winning the first three games in the match. Zhang couldn’t keep up with the Greek and seemed to lose confidence midway through the match. It should be noted however that Zhang became the first male Chinese player in 86 years to win a main-draw match at Roland Garros.
Tsitsipas, has been playing some of the best tennis of his career lately, picking up his third Masters 1000 title in Monte Carlo last month. Going forward, he seems to have a great chance to make a run for his first ever grand slam.
All three of the promising young stars will still need to go through world no. 1 Novak Djokovic to raise the trophy at the end of the tournament. Djokovic will play his third round match today against Italian Lorenzo Muscetti on the Philippe-Chatrier Court.
The 24-time grand slam winner hasn’t looked at his best so far in the clay season and will be looking to find some form heading into the quarter and semi finals. A possible semi final match against Alexander Zverev could be on the cards who has been playing great the past couple of months.
