A rare non-capacity crowd for Brazilian sensation

New York Times

3 days ago

Follow live coverage from Roland Garros as the first week of action is wrapped up with the end of the third round in Paris Getty Images
The first week of the 2025 French Open ends at Roland Garros with the third round of the singles to be wrapped up today.
Jannik Sinner (1) has cruised into the fourth round while Jessica Pegula (3) came from a set down to advance. American Coco Gauff (2) won in straight sets to reach the fourth round while Madison Keys survived in three sets over Sofia Kenin.
British No.1 Jack Draper (5) trounced Joao Fonseca in straight sets to advance to the fourth round. Novak Djokovic (6) is underway for the nightcap at Court Philippe-Chatrier. Watch: TNT, truTV (U.S.); TNT Sports, Discovery+ (UK)
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It's very humid on Lenglen, with spitting rain making things even less comfortable for the players.
It's Jack Draper who's made the steadier start, breaking Joao Fonseca for 2-1.
Fonseca's matches tend to attract huge crowds right from the start, but today he's on Lenglen, a ticketed court where some casual fans might be less bothered about missing a few games, mean there are a number of empty seats early on. Some of his fans may also have been caught out by the earlier than expected start time, following Jannik Sinner's evisceration of Jiri Lehecka.
Some lovely exchanges between Draper and Fonseca nice and early on. The crowd is roaring behind Fonseca after every point gained, not so much Draper.
Still, it is the Brit who takes an early break advantage. A fantastic point for 30-30 as Draper wades through some aggressive striking from the Brazilian, stretching to meet the volley and blasting a forehand pass. He takes it to deuce and claims the break at his first opportunity.
Only three clay defeats this season for Draper and he's making his quality on the surface known.
A strong contingent of Paris Saint-Germain-clad spectators in to see British No.1 Jack Draper — who is becoming ever-more accomplished on the clay — against Brazilian sensation Joao Fonseca.
The 18-year-old truly announced himself on the ATP scene when he beat Andrey Rublev in straight sets in Melbourne. The crowds have been pouring in to see him in Paris so far, and the atmosphere during his opening-round victory over Hubert Hurkacz was quite something.
In their most recent meeting, Draper made pretty light work of Fonseca en route to claiming the Indian Wells title. Now they're on clay, let's see if that has any say in proceedings.
Elsewhere, on Chatrier, Alexander Zverev has taken a 4-1 lead over Flavio Cobolli. Getty Images
That was quite the emphatic performance by Sinner. Lehečka, who took just three games in the match, is given a rousing reception as he exits the court. The world No.1 steps up to the microphone.
"Today I was playing really really well, especially two and a half sets. He was serving very well, very brave, I was standing back he was making some good serve-volleys. I'm very happy, we played already a couple of times before so we both kind of know what to expect.
"Simone (Vagnozzi), my coach had his birthday yesterday. Usually when he has his birthday I don't play good."
He added he feels "happy" on court, and feels that led to such a positive performance. Sinner faces Andrey Rublev in the next round, who will have some extra days' rest in the legs after receiving a bye in the third round.
Joao Fonseca v Jack Draper is coming up. That's a tasty one.
Jessica Pegula is back in the second week of a Grand Slam. She got there the hard way, dropping the first set to the tricky and dangerous and suddenly healthy Markéta Vondroušová, who stormed back against her in a Wimbledon quarterfinal two years ago with Pegula up a break in the third set.
Pegula made sure that didn't happen this time, even though the second she drew even was less than straightforward. She needed seven points to get to level. But then Vondroušová's legs stopped working, as they were always likely to do, playing her first matches in three months after recovering from the lingering effects of shoulder surgery.
Pegula started controlling the rallies and moving Vondroušová from side to side until the Czech's legs just wouldn't let her move anymore. Pegula didn't wobble and cruised to the 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win. She will face Elsa Jacquemot or Lois Boisson, both French wild cards, for a spot in the quarterfinals.
18-year-old Mirra Andreeva is safely through to the last 16 and will face Daria Kasatkina tomorrow. The pair know each other pretty well.
"Yeah, I practiced with her here once already, so I think that we practice together every tournament," Andreeva said in a news conference. "It's going to be an entertaining match, for sure, because I think we both know each other very well.
"So, you know, I think that it's going to be fun and also maybe pretty tight. We're going to see, but I think that the match is going to be super interesting."
Andreeva admitted she felt a "little nervous" heading into today's match, but said she feels "better and better" with every match she plays. The No.6 already has Dubai and Indian Wells titles to her name this season. Getty Images
The No.3 has saved her best for last and despite being broken for 2-2, has returned the favour three times in this third set.
Two excellent aces in that final game, and finding joy in just sending Vondroušová scrambling from side to side. The No.3 makes her ranking count in the end, and survives well from that early scare.
It didn't feel like we really saw Pegula's best out there today, but she's riding a crest right now and did well to quell her opponent, who came out the blocks firing.
"For the first hour I was just running up and back, sprints, it was like a fitness workout with her drop shots," Pegula said on-court. "She's so tricky. She does well here every year, I know she hasn't been playing that much because she's been injured, but to be honest I think that was a really good win against someone who is really a clay courter. To figure it out, makes me really proud."
Pegula will face one of the French duo, Elsa Jacquemot or Lois Boisson in the last 16, surely with the crowd against her.
Vondrousova and Pegula have split the first two sets, with the American just taking the second 6-4 after losing the opener 6-3. Vondrousova, a leftie with a beautiful all-court game, is all slices and angles, while Pegula is much more steady and consistent. After looking bewitched early on by Vondrousova's variety, Pegula started to take over with her greater weight of shot. Though things got a bit tight towards the end of the set, which Pegula had led 5-1.
She has pulled away in the third, however, and leads Vondrousova 5-2.
Lehečka gets his first game on the board, and narrowly avoids a double bagel. Sinner is laying down a real marker here.
Here's all the scores from the early action in Paris so far: M. Andreeva 6-3 6-1 Y. Putintseva
6-3 6-1 Y. Putintseva D. Kasatkina 6-1 7-5 P. Badosa
6-1 7-5 P. Badosa M. Vondroušová 6-3 4-6 2-2 J. Pegula
E. Jacquemont 3-6 L. Boisson T. Griekspoor 4-6 6-1 6-7 (2) 6-1 E. Quinn
J. Sinner 6-0 6-1 J. Lehečka
Pegula took a 5-1 lead in the second set against Vondroušová, it was all looking pretty routine. But then things started to get a little hairy.
Two holds and a break later, the 2023 Wimbledon champion chalked back her deficit and made things pretty tense for Pegula.
Serving for the set, the No.3 charged ahead with three set points, though spurned two of them. In the end, Vondroušová's resistance is broken, he fires into the net, and the American can regather. She'll be relieved to have got through there, it hasn't been particularly convincing so far, though her opponent is clearly displaying a level which belies her lowly ranking.
Indeed, Sinner has made truly light work of Lehečka in that opener and closed it out with a bagel, in just 23 minutes. A penny for the thoughts of the world No.34, who, in fairness, has a decent serve on him, not that Sinner has allowed that to be put on show.
In fact, the biggest threat to Sinner's clean sweep just there was actually on his own serve. He was pushed to deuce and Lehečka spurned a break point as the Italian eventually held for a 5-0 lead, and went on to take his first set point.
Pegula, meanwhile, is serving for the set and parity against Vondroušová. She worked her way into a break-point opportunity at 5-1 up, but could not see it through. Still, in prime position to chalk back that early deficit.
Mirra Andreeva's victory, meanwhile, meant she made a slice of Roland-Garros history.
That didn't take long. Sinner opens with two holds to love either side of a break and Jiří Lehečka is firmly up against it. A 3-0 lead inside 10 minutes, no messing about from the top seed.
Whoever wins here will face Andrey Rublev — who gets a bye due to Arthur Fils' withdrawal — in the last 16.
Meanwhile, on Chatrier, Pegula takes two breaks off Vondroušová, but herself is broken too. A 2-1 lead in the second set for the American, though looking anything but comfortable in her service games.
The American is already up against it in her third-round match here on Chatrier, with Vondroušová looking more like the player who won Wimbledon in 2023 than the world No.96 that she is now. The Czech player is a game away from taking the opening set after finding a breakthrough on Pegula's serve.
Meanwhile, the men's No.1 is about to get going! Getty Images
The No.3 seed meets Marketa Vondrousova on the showcase court, both getting a feel for it out there, though Pegula pushing her counterpart to deuce in threat of an early break.
Jannik Sinner will not be far behind, with Mirra Andreeva having just dispatched Yulia Putintseva in straight sets on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.
We're beginning to gather some pace!
It's a warm, humid day in Paris and some rain briefly halted play a few minutes ago - no prolonged stoppages though and on we go.
Speaking of rain, on Chatrier, Jessica Pegula and Marketa Vondrousova have just stepped onto Chatrier for their third-round match. When they met in the Wimbledon quarterfinal two years ago, Pegula looked set for a quarterfinal win, up 3-1 in the decider, before the heavens opened and play was stopped. Able to regroup, Vondrousova won five of the next six games on the resumption en route to winning the title. Vondrousova's had wretched luck with injuries since, but she's on her way back - as she talked about with Matt Futterman earlier in the week here - and is looking to upset Pegula again today. Pegula. the world No. 3 goes in as the big favourite, however.
Elsewhere at Roland Garros, there's a frisson of excitement today with PSG competing in the Champions League final. The Parc des Princes is right on our doorstep here, and it'll be packed in a few hours time with fans watching on big screens.
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Mirra Andreeva's run to the 2024 French Open semi-finals put her firmly on the map as a 17-year-old breakout prospect. A year older, still a teenager, and there is a real maturity about her play.
Pretty comfortable stuff from the world No.6 so far this morning. She clinched the first set in style, and has just romped into a break advantage in the second set, 3-1 up and Yulia Putintseva has it all to do now.
Either Daria Kasatkina or Paula Badosa await the victor of this one. On Court Simonne-Mathieu, Kasatkina leads by a set, and the pair have traded breaks.
From elation to despair.
Arthur Fils put on a real show for his home crowd with a rather scintillating five-set victory over Jaume Munar in the second round. Four hours, 30 minutes of intense battling, seeing his hard-fought two-set lead eviscerate before clinching the decider. The celebrations were immense, but the excitement was soon quelled with the highest-ranked French player remaining in the tournament having to withdraw.
The 20-year-old cited a stress fracture in his lower back while speaking at a news conference this morning.
"I had some issue with the back since a long time, and during the match against Munar it gets worse," he said. "Then I did some exams. The exams were not good at all. Got some stress fracture."
He added: "It's the lower back. I got this issue a couple of times already when I was young. I don't remember. I don't know if it's L-3 or L-5. L-5? Yeah, L-5. So yeah, I got some issue like this in the past already."
Fils said he would "try to be ready for Wimbledon," but conceded he does not know what this means for his grass court season.
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Arthur Fils withdraws from French Open with stress fracture in back after Suzanne-Lenglen heroics Getty Images
Some massive names involved in today's men's singles matches.
Top seed Jannik Sinner faces Jiří Lehečka, Jack Draper (5) plays Brazilian teen sensation João Fonseca, Novak Djokovic (6) is up against Filip Misolic and Cam Norrie takes on Jacob Fearnley in an all-British encounter.
The other four matches are: Tallon Griekspoor vs. Ethan Quinn
Alexander Zverev (3) vs. Flavio Cobolli
Alexander Bublik vs. Henrique Rocha
Andrey Rublev (17) with a walkover after Arthur Fils (14) pulled out with an injury Getty Images
In the eight men's singles matches on Friday in the third round, no massive upsets.
Frances Tiafoe (15) got past fellow American Sebastian Korda (23) in straight sets, with U.S. seeds Tommy Paul (12) — after beating Karen Khachanov (24) 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-3 — and Ben Shelton (13), after defeating Matteo Gigante 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, also moving into the last 16.
The other results: Holger Rune (10) beat Quentin Halys 4-6, 6-2, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2
Alexei Popyrin (25) beat Nuno Borges 6-4, 7-6(11), 7-6(5)
Lorenzo Musetti (8) beat Mariano Navone 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2
Daniel Altmaier beat Hamad Medjedovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2
And Carlos Alcaraz (2) beat Damir Džumhur 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4