Raonic reaches third round at French Open
PARIS — Canada’s Milos Raonic is through to the third round of the French Open after a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win over Brazil’s Rogerio Dutra Silva on Wednesday.
Raonic fired his 25th ace of the day on match point to set up a third-round meeting with Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
The two hour, 23 minute match could have been decided quicker had Raonic been more successful on break chances. The fifth seed from Thornhill, Ont., won just five of 20 break points.
After dropping a first set in which he was broken twice, Raonic controlled the next two before running into some trouble in the fourth.
Raonic and Dutra Silva held serve until the ninth game, where the Brazilian faced triple break point. But Raonic couldn’t put the Brazilian away until his seventh break point.
Raonic went into game 10 up 5-4 and emphatically put the match away with his booming serve, winning every point with an ace.
Raonic has won both his career meetings with Garcia-Lopez: A Davis Cup win in 2013 and a victory at Miami in 2014, both on hard court.
In women’s action, Montreal’s Francoise Abanda was bounced from the second round after losing 6-0, 6-0 to 11th-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.
Abanda, playing in her first French Open, was broken six times on eight chances by the former world No. 1
Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., plays her second-round match Thursday against 17th-seed Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.
Meanwhile, in contrasting fashion, defending champions Novak Djokovic and Garbine Muguruza both advanced.
Second-seeded Djokovic barely put a foot wrong in a 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 win over Joao Sousa, while Muguruza had to dig deep to down Anett Kontaveit 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2. Rafael Nadal beat Robin Haase 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.
Meanwhile, Ons Jabeur is juggling sport and religion to make a dream debut at the French Open.
Jabeur, who is playing in the main singles draw at Roland Garros for the first time, beat sixth-seeded Dominikia Cibulkova in straight sets to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career. Jabeur won 6-4, 6-3 to become the first Arab woman to reach the third round of a major.
The Tunisian is a Muslim, but is not fasting during her time at the tournament this Ramadan, which started on Friday and finishes on June 24. Jabeur said instead she is using a sort of “credit system” where she will atone for the days she missed after the tournament.
“It’s hard to think about Ramadan,” Jabeur said. “I mean, I can’t not eat or drink ... obviously I cannot do 30 days in a row. But I just have to do it before the next Ramadan, for sure.”
The 22-year-old had only played two Grand Slam matches before the French Open began and only made it out qualifying as a “lucky loser” when another player withdrew.