PARIS – Stefanos Tsitsipas was again made to work hard for victory, the Greek fourth seed overcoming Czech qualifier Zdenek Kolar 6-3 7-6(8) 6-7(3) 7-6(7) in a marathon match to move into the French Open third round.
Aryna Sabalenka needed just 62 minutes to beat Madison Brengle 6-1, 6-3 and advance to the third round at Roland Garros for the third straight year.
Two days after the 23-year-old Tsitsipas came from two sets down to beat Italian Lorenzo Musetti at the claycourt Grand Slam, there was another nail-biter for the 2021 finallist.
The match appeared headed for a deciding set when Tsitsipas found himself down four set points in the tiebreaker but the Greek found a way to save them all before converting his second match point after four hours and six minutes.
Tsitsipas slammed his racket down in frustration after forcing an error from Kolar as the crowd erupted in appreciation.
“He drove me crazy. It was really frustrating,” Tsitsipas said in his on-court interview.
“He was putting every part of his body behind the ball. I’d like to congratulate him for this effort,” he added according to Reuters.
Kolar made his main draw debut at Roland Garros this year after losing in the qualifiers the last four times and pulled off his first tour-level victory over Frenchman Lucas Pouille in the opening round.
In his first clash with Kolar, Tsitsipas made a strong start on Court Suzanne Lenglen to bag the opening set in 35 minutes but he was soon forced to play catchup with the 134th-ranked Czech racing to a 4-1 lead in the second.
But the Greek, who won the first two sets of the 2021 French Open final before going down to world number one Novak Djokovic, went up a gear to level before taking the second set after a long tiebreaker.
The 25-year-old Kolar showed big heart and with vocal support from the crowd supporting the underdog, he stayed in touch with Tsitsipas in the third set and dominated the tiebreaker to force a fourth.
After trading service breaks through the set, Kolar was a point away from forcing a fifth but was unable to convert his chances in the tiebreaker.
Meanwhile, Alize Cornet beat 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-0, 1-6, 6-3 to advance to the third round at the French Open.
The 32-year-old French player had plenty of support under the lights at Court Philippe Chatrier in the final match of the day.
Ostapenko made 48 unforced errors to Cornet’s five. The Latvian beat Simona Halep for the Roland Garros title five years ago.
The veteran Cornet reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final this year at the Australian Open.
Aryna Sabalenka needed just 62 minutes to beat Madison Brengle 6-1, 6-3 and advance to the third round at Roland Garros for the third straight year.
No. 7 Sabalenka is one of just three top-10 women’s seeds remaining. No. 1 Iga Swiatek and No. 3 Paula Badosa are the others.
The 24-year-old Belarusian reached the semi-finals of both Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins is the latest top-10 women’s seed to exit the French Open.
In a battle of Americans, Shelby Rogers upset 9th-seeded Collins 6-4, 6-3 to reach the third round at Roland Garros for the first time since 2017.
Collins is the seventh top-10 seed to lose.
