Cilic, Thiem battle into third round
Women’s third seed Muguruza beats French wild card
Title challengers Marin Cilic and Dominic Thiem struggled into the French Open last 32 on Thursday.
Third seed Cilic reached the third round for the eighth time with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 7-5 win over Polish qualifier and world No.188 Hubert Hurkacz.
Former US Open champion Cilic, who reached the quarterfinals in Paris last year, will face Steve Johnson of the US for a place in the last 16.
However, it was a roller coaster of a performance by newly wed Cilic who cracked 48 winners but also 52 unforced errors.
“I was in control but played a poor third set, so I had to start all over again,” said the 29-year-old Cilic.
“I had to be positive, positive, positive. I screamed just to let it all out and I got the break in the 11th game.”
Seventh-seeded Thiem, a semifinalist in 2016 and 2017, racked up his 31st win of the year.
The Austrian, the only man to beat world No.1 Rafael Nadal on clay this year, saw off Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a match which had been suspended overnight after the third set.
Tsitsipas, 19, had beaten Thiem in Barcelona in the build-up to Roland Garros and was bidding to become the first Greek man to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since 1969.
Next up for Thiem is Italy’s Matteo Berrettini.
Highly rated Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov was knocked out by Germany’s Maximilian Marterer 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5, 6-4.
World No.70 Marterer, 22, has now reached the third round at successive Grand Slam events and will face a lucky loser for a place in the last 16 – either Belgian Ruben Bemmelmans or Estonia’s Jurgen Zopp.
The 19-year-old Shapovalov had been seeded at a major tournament for the first time, but struggled after losing the second-set tiebreaker.
Women’s third seed Garbine Muguruza, the 2016 champion, was too strong for France’s No.257 Fiona Ferro, winning 6-4, 6-3.
The Spaniard sealed the match with a whipped cross-court forehand, though for much of the match she struggled to find her rhythm and range on the forehand.
Muguruza, who won at Roland Garros in 2016 and heads to Wimbledon this year as defending champion, had not played 21-year-old Ferro before Thursday’s encounter.
“She’s young and she’s talented,” Muguruza said in a post match interview on court Suzanne Lenglen. “These matches are very difficult.”
Muguruza arrived in Paris as one of five women with a chance of claiming the world No.1 spot.
Her form leading up to the clay-court Grand Slam was mixed, exiting the Madrid Open in the third round and suffering a defeat in her opening match of the Rome Open. But she said she felt good in Paris.
“The French Open is the tournament for me. My body is good and my tennis is following,” she said.
She eased into the third round for the fifth consecutive year.
Meanwhile, Australian 24th seed Daria Gavrilova came back from a set and 5-2 down, saving a match point in the process, to defeat America’s Bernarda Pera 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.