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Yahoo
an hour ago
- General
- Yahoo
Keys wins all-American tie to reach French Open last 16
Former Australian Open champion and Roland Garros runner-up Kenin had led 3-0 in the third set and held three match points over Keys (JULIEN DE ROSA) American seventh seed Madison Keys edged past compatriot Sofia Kenin 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 on Saturday to reach the fourth round at Roland Garros. Keys will again face a fellow countrywomen in the next round after Hailey Baptiste downed Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6/4 (7/4), 6-1 earlier in the day. Advertisement Keys and Kenin shared breaks early in the decider, before the reigning Australian Open champion broke the 31st seed at 5-5 and then held serve to see out the match. Former Australian Open champion and Roland Garros runner-up Kenin had led 3-0 in the third set and held three match points over Keys, before the world number eight turned the match round to book her place in the last 16 nf/ea
Canberra Times
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Canberra Times
New Aussie Kasatkina salutes the original 'Dasha'
She's yet to have the chance to go to her new adopted home country because of the demands of the international WTA circuit, but the one person who's been invaluable in helping her plans to settle in Melbourne is Saville, who's been part of the Australian tennis scene for a decade now.
Daily Tribune
9 hours ago
- Sport
- Daily Tribune
Swiatek, Sabalenka reach last 16
AFP | Paris Iga Swiatek kept her bid for a fourth consecutive French Open title on track yesterday, advancing to the last 16 at Roland Garros along with top women's seed Aryna Sabalenka and Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen. Reigning men's champion Carlos Alcaraz will look to book his place in the last 16 later to join Italy's Lorenzo Musetti and Dane Holger Rune who both rallied to set up a fourth-round clash. Swiatek came through despite a very close second set against Romania's world number 60 Jaqueline Cristian, winning 6-2, 7-5 in nearly two hours in sweltering conditions on Court Suzanne Lenglen. 'Before it was 20 degrees when I played my first match but today it was 30 degrees. It is not easy to adjust but I have played in every condition,' said Swiatek. The 23-year-old Pole awaits the winner of a big-hitting showdown between Elena Rybakina and Jelena Ostapenko, who has beaten Swiatek in all six of their previous meetings. A former world number one, who has fallen to fifth in the WTA rankings, Swiatek has not won a title since her third consecutive title on the Parisian clay in 2024. Swiatek broke the 60thranked Cristian twice in a comfortable first set, but she was pushed a lot harder by her rival in the second and had to save six break points. 'She went for it every time I gave her a chance,' said Swiatek, hoping to become the first woman to win four succes-sive Roland Garros titles since Suzanne Lenglen 102 years ago. 'I'm just happy that I was super solid and didn't give any free points but she used her chances.' Sabalenka relishes battle Earlier Sabalenka produced a dominant display in a 6-2, 6-3 win over Serbian left-hander Olga Danilovic. 'Olga is a fighter. I enjoyed our battle,' said Madrid Open winner Sabalenka after beating her 34th-ranked rival in 79 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier. The 27-year-old Belarusian next plays 16th-seeded American Amanda Anisimova for a place in the quarter-finals. Anisimova ousted Danish 22nd seed Clara Tauson 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 in their third-round tie. Zheng ended the run of Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko 6-3, 6-4. The Chinese eighth seed has now won nine successive matches at Roland Garros following her run to Olympic gold last year. 'We had some really good points, it was not an easy match,' said Zheng. 'Today was a tough battle against Qinwen,' said 18-yearold Grand Slam newcomer Mboko. 'Lots of things to learn and hopefully come back to my next tournament with some more positives and (having) improved on my game.' Zheng is through to the fourth round in Paris for the second time and will next Russian 19th seed Liudmila Samsonova who brushed aside Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-3. Zheng and Samsonova will both be bidding for a first Roland Garros quarter-final berth. Eighth seed Musetti won 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 against Argentine Mariano Navone in three hours and 25 minutes. Musetti arrived in Paris as one of the form players in the world after backing up his runner-up finish in Monte Carlo with semi-final runs in Madrid and Rome. But the Italian dropped his first set in Paris against world number 97 Navone.
Daily Mirror
12 hours ago
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
French Open player was slapped with £8k fine for hitting child with racket
This former top-25 star exited the French Open in the first round due to injury, suffering another Roland Garros setback after being hit with a huge fine in 2022 Romanian tennis star Irina-Camelia Begu was fined £8,000 at the French Open in 2022 after an outburst saw her racket strike a child in the stands. The 34-year-old WTA veteran couldn't build on her stellar record at Roland Garros this time around. Facing home favourite Leolia Jeanjean in the first round of the competition's latest renewal, Begu flew into the lead with a 6-0 opening-set win, and while the match looked at her mercy, a poor second set went the way of her French opponent 7-5. In the last set, however, Begu suffered an agonising calf injury, and though three games of the third were managed, Begu retired and exited the singles competition. Such misery unearths memories of a 2022 outburst in Paris, which saw the 34-year-old slapped with a hefty fine during a second-round matchup against Ekaterina Alexandrova. Three years ago, Begu, then ranked world No. 63, advanced to the second round after beating Jasmine Paolini, setting up a clash against 30-seed Alexandrova. A toughly-contested opening set went the way of the seeded player, though Begu bounced back to claim the second 6-3. Yet, frustrations soon arose in the third set, as, when going down a break during a crucial time in the clash, Begu vented her annoyance by throwing her racket towards her bench. The racket flew up when colliding with the court, unfortunately hitting a young boy in the crowd in the face. The match umpire immediately came down from his seat, as the crying child was situated directly behind him. Begu came to the scene of the incident and conversed with the umpire and the family of the boy who was hit. The tournament referee also came to the court to discuss the event. In the end, the Romanian star was only handed a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct and was not defaulted, much to the annoyance of her opponent. Begu rallied in the third set, claiming it 6-4 to advance to the third round at Roland Garros. Yet, the code violation would not be her only punishment for the outburst. She would later be fined £7.9k and issued an apology. "It's an embarrassing moment for me, so I don't want to talk too much about it. I just want to apologise," stated Begu after the match. "My whole career, I didn't do something like this, and I feel really bad and sorry. So I'm just going to say again, sorry for the incident, and, yeah, it was just an embarrassing moment for me. "It was a difficult moment because I didn't want to hit that racket. You hit the clay with the racquet, but you never expect to fly that much. It was, as I said, an embarrassing moment for me and I just want to end it and not talk about it and apologise again." In the third round, Begu would face 2025 opponent Jeanjean, who was swept aside in straight sets 6-1, 6-4, with Jessica Pegula waiting in the fourth round. Despite winning the first set and looking as though she could make her way past the fourth round in a major tournament for the first time, Pegula would take sets two and three 6-2 and 6-3 and knock Begu out. However, her second-round adversary, Alexandrova, felt Begu should have exited the competition earlier. In a swiftly deleted social media post, Alexandrova expressed her frustrations, and captioned an Instagram post: "So disappointed to leave Roland Garros like that, I was trying to do my best, but seems like the rules were against me today. This shouldn't be happening. I hope after today's match rules will be improved for everyone's safety. We are responsible for our racket."
The Hindu
14 hours ago
- Sport
- The Hindu
Swiatek demands equal treatment as French Open schedule sparks debate
Amid criticism of the French Open's scheduling decisions, Iga Swiatek pointed to the Mexican waves rippling around Court Suzanne Lenglen during her compelling match against Jaqueline Cristian as evidence of women's tennis's entertainment value. The claycourt major features only one match daily during the primetime evening session that begins after 8.15 p.m. local time (18.15 GMT), but has so far not featured a women's match in that slot in the opening six days of action. The last time a women's singles match was played under the lights of Court Philippe Chatrier was the fourth-round meeting between Aryna Sabalenka and Sloane Stephens on June 4, 2023. Defending women's champion Swiatek, who overcame Cristian of Romania 6-2, 7-5, said she usually adjusts to the schedule she is given but added that it should be 'equal'. 'Women's matches can be entertainment the same way (as men's matches). As you could see today on my match, they (fans) were doing the Mexican waves and everything. So people like it,' Swiatek told reporters. 'We can put on a nice show. That's why I think it should be equal. That's it.' ALSO READ | Coco Gauff says women's matches 'worthy' of French Open night session Women's governing body the WTA told Reuters via email it encourages all combined tournaments to provide a balanced match schedule that showcases the best of both women's and men's tennis in premium scheduling slots. Three-times Grand Slam runner-up Ons Jabeur reignited a debate that has raged since night sessions were introduced at Roland Garros four years ago, saying this week that women's matches were being sidelined. The Tunisian added in a post on X on Friday that 'honouring one side of the sport shouldn't mean ignoring the other'. Night sessions are exclusively broadcast by Amazon's Prime service in France. French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said that women's matches, played over a maximum of three sets as opposed to the five on the men's side, could finish 'really fast' and having an extra match in that slot was unfeasible. ALSO READ | What's behind the French Open's lack of women's night matches? 'If we have two matches in the night session it doesn't work in terms of how late players are going to finish,' said Mauresmo in a press conference on Friday, explaining that earlier starts would not work as well. 'The stands are going to be empty in most of the first match. That's what we think. So we keep this one match in the evening. It's not ideal. 'We cannot check every box because we have many things to think when we're making these choices.' Mauresmo, who won two Grand Slam singles titles, said that the French Open scheduling was not a reflection of its attitude towards women's players. 'For me, the message is not changing, and it has never been that the girls are not worthy to play at night,' she said. 'It's never been this. I'll not accept that you carry this message. That's clear to me.'
