Key events
Oh, and Diane Parry leads Anhelina Kalinina – I love a rhyming name – the number 25 seed – 6-2 3-2 with a break.
Otherwise, Casper Ruud, seeded four, leads Elias Ymer, a qualifier, 6-4 2-1 with a break; Ons Jabeur and Lucia Bronzetti are 1-1; Tommy Paul, the number 16 seed, leads Dominic Stricker 6-3 3-2 with a break; and JJ Wolf leads Yoshihito Nishioka, the number 27 seed, 6-1 2-2.
We’ve already got a winner: Erika Andreeva has beaten Alison Riske-Amritraj 6-2 6-1; she meets Kalinina or Parry next.
Preamble
Salut! And welcome to day three of Roland-Garros 2023! As ever, we’ve got a criminal quantity of tremendous tennis for you as round one draws to a close.
The most obviously exciting match comes late in the day on Mathieu, Victoria Azarenka taking on Bianca Andreescu. But before that, we get to see Ons Jabeur, Iga Swiatek, Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Elena Rybakina, Alex Zverev, Barbora Krejcikova and Coco Gauff – it’s ridiculous really.
In particular, I’m looking forward to Rybakina, and not just because her opponent, Brenda Fruhvirtova, is just 16 and a potential star. The Wimbledon champion and Australian Open runner-up is a potential winner here, her power, clean-hitting, composure and form the combination most likely to dethrone Swiatek – they’re seeded to meet in the last four.
Otherwise, today’s big seeds have friendly draws, but as we know, once they start hitting balls, anything can happen. On y va!
