Murray advances to third round
26 May 2016 11:03 PM GMT
After playing superb tennis to lead 2-1 in sets on Court Philippe Chatrier, the 22-year-old Bourgue ran out of gas while Murray limited his mistakes to 10 unforced errors in the last two sets.
Eighth-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic took to centre court after Murray’s win to begin his second-round match against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino. Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard will play her second-round women’s match against Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky on Thursday.
Stan good enough
After needing to come back and win in five sets to barely avoid becoming the first defending champion in tournament history to lose in the first round, Stan Wawrinka moved into the third with a 7-6 (7), 6-3, 6-4 victory over 93rd-ranked Taro Daniel of Japan. In the tiebreaker, the third-seeded Wawrinka found himself facing two set points while trailing 6-4. But he erased both of those and eventually pulled out the set, then quickly went up a break in the second and was on his way.
Wawrinka said his play against Daniel had “many ups and downs,” but that he’s “ready to step it up.”
Wawrinka compiled a 62-21 advantage in winners and will now face No. 30 Jeremy Chardy of France for a spot in the round of 16.
Talented teen wins
Teenager Alexander Zverev has completed his first career win in the main draw of the French Open. The 19-year-old German, who is regarded as one of the most talented youngsters on the circuit, advanced to the second round of the clay-court Grand Slam with a 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (6), 7-5 win over Pierre-Hugues Herbert. Their match was suspended at the start of the fourth set on Tuesday because of darkness.
The 41st-ranked Zverev is playing for the second time at the Roland Garros after losing in the qualifying stages last year. He will be up against another Frenchman, Stephane Robert, in the second round.
Kvitova ‘feeling good’
On the women’s side, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, 2009 French Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova, 2014 finalist Simona Halep and fourth-seeded Garbine Muguruza all advanced to the third round.
The 10th-seeded Kvitova beat Hsieh Su-Wei 6-4, 6-1. Kvitova, who reached the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2012, looked more comfortable than in her first-round match. Kvitova says “I’m feeling good. I’m healthy, and that’s important.”
The sixth-seeded Halep had to rally from 4-1 down in the first set to beat Zarina Diyas 7-6 (5), 6-2, while Kuznetsova defeated Heather Watson 6-1, 6-3. Muguruza beat wild-card entry Myrtille Georges 6-2, 6-0.
Sania, Paes, Bopanna enter second round
India’s tennis stars Sania Mirza, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna got their French Open campaign off to a winning start as the trio won their respective women’s doubles and men’s doubles matches to enter the second round here on Wednesday.
World No.1 women’s doubles pair of Sania and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis defeated the Russian pair of Darya Kasatkina and Alexandra Panova 7-6 (4), 6-2 in one hour and 31 minutes.
India’s Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea outclassed Frenchmen Stephane Robert and Alexandre Sidorenko 6-2, 6-2 in a one-sided encounter in 56 minutes.
India’s Paes and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski defeated Belarusian and Uzbekistani pair of Alexander Bury and Denis Istomin 7-6 (3), 7-6 (6) in one hour 46 minutes. The top seeds Indo-Swiss pair Sania-Martina began the match on a positive note, taking a vital 5-0 lead over the Russian pair in the first set.
But a couple of unforced errors and losing two successive serves handed Darya-Alexandra the advantage as they staged a remarkable comeback to make it 5-5 in the first set. From there on it came down to 6-6 and the reigning Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open champions pair held their nerves to win the tie-breaker 7-4 to grab the first set.
The first set win proved a confidence booster for the top seeds as Sania-Martina, courtesy of a couple of aces and powerful forehand shots, took an important 4-2 lead in the second set. There was no looking back for them as they went on to win the next two games and the second set 6-2 and enter the second round in style.
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