Roland Garros: Novak Djokovic into the third round and Ashleigh Barty withdrew due to injury
Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic reached the third round of the French Open, the second Grand Slam in tennis, on Thursday, by defeating Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas in three clean sets, while an injury forced first-ranked Australian Ashleigh Barty and defending champion in 2019 to withdraw in the second set of Her match against the Polish Magda Lynette.
The 2016 champion did not find it difficult to get past the 92nd ranked world number 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in the first match that brought them together.
The runner-up said four times, most recently last year after winning, “Pablo is a player who specializes in clay courts and has strength in the front and back kicks, but I remained focused. The third set was difficult because he raised his level but I stayed focused and increased my serve and I am really happy.”
“It is important that I stay present and think only of the next opponent, I feel good on the field, play with confidence, serve and shoot well. I think the preparations were good for Roland Garros so I hope to go far in this tournament.”
The Serbian, who is searching for his 19th Grand Slam title, will next meet with Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis, who defeated Australian James Duckworth, knowing that Djokovic won all three matches that brought him together in Lithuania, the last of which was in the second round in France last year.
Djokovic saved 8 out of 9 break points and fired 31 knockouts.
In the men's third round, Argentine Diego Schwarzman, Russian Aslan Karatsev, Italian Matteo Berrettini and his compatriot Yannick Sener.
- “It is heartbreaking” - Barty, who won the championship on her last visit to Roland Garros in 2019, left the field at the end of the first set, which she lost 1-6, in order to receive treatment, before having to withdraw after the fourth game of the second set when the result was 2-2 due to an injury to the upper left thigh.
"It's heartbreaking," Barty, 25, said, explaining that she had suffered the "new" injury in training last week.
"The last three months have been fantastic, with very few setbacks, and what happened today and this week here in Paris is not going to remove that," she added.
"It's disappointing that it ended like this," she said. I've had my fair share of tears this week. All is well. Everything happens for a reason," she said, noting that "there will be a silver lining in the end. Once I find out what it is, it will make me feel a little better.”
Barty said she will now focus her attention on getting back in shape at Wimbledon, which begins on June 28.
“I hope so,” she said of her chances of preparing for the English Championship, which was canceled last year due to the Corona virus. I'm really going to do it," she said, adding, "We're doing all the right things now, we keep doing the right things. We are giving ourselves the best chance.”
"It's going to be a little bit difficult this week," Barty said after her victory over American Bernarda Pera on Tuesday. I think over the weekend I had some pain in my left thigh.”
Barty, who crowned the title two years ago and missed the 2020 edition last fall amid the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, was one of the prominent candidates to crown the title this year.
In 2020, when global competitions resumed in the dead of summer after a 5-month hiatus, the Australian, as a health precaution, preferred to stay in her country, which was not much affected by the epidemic.
Since her return to competition last January, she has added 3 titles to her record: the Australian Melbourne, the American Miami and the German Stuttgart. She was eliminated from the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and reached the final of the Madrid tournament.
But she also withdrew from the Rome quarter-finals due to a sore arm, where she was ahead of American Corey Gauff by one set.
In Paris, Barty also played with a large bandage on the left thigh.
It is the first time that Barty has been eliminated early from one of the four major tournaments since her farewell to the second round of the French championship in 2018.
- Jaber qualified -
In the next round, Linnet will meet Tunisian Anas Jaber, 26, who beat Australian Astra Sharma 6-2, 6-4.
Jaber took revenge on Sharma, who had denied her the first title in her professional career when she beat her 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the final of the Charleston US Open on April 18.
At the time, Jaber, 26, played the second final of her professional career, after she failed in the first attempt in the 2018 Moscow final when she fell to Russian Daria Kasatkina.
It is the third time that Jaber has reached the third round of Roland Garros after the first in 2017 in her first participation and lost to Swiss Timea Baccinski, and the second last year when she was eliminated from the final price at the hands of American Daniel Collins.
American Sofia Kenin, fourth and runner-up in 2020, reached the third round, defeating compatriot Haile Baptiste 7-5, 6-3.
Kenin, the Australian Open champion last year, who lost the Roland Garros final in the same year to Poland's Iga Švientek, set a date with her other compatriot Jessica Pegula, who beat Czech Teresa Martinochkova 6-3 6-3.
Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, the fifth, qualified by defeating American Anne Lee 6-0, 6-4, to meet with Czech Barbora Krichikova, who defeated Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 6-3.
And the American teenager Coco Gauff joined the qualifiers by defeating China's Qiang Wang 6-3, 7-6 (7/1).
AFP
