Wozniacki in fourth round, Svitolina falls short again
PARIS : Former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki whizzed into the fourth round of the French Open with a brutal 6-0, 6-3 demolition of local favourite Pauline Parmentier on Friday.
In front of an half empty Court Philippe Chatrier under threatening skies, the Danish second seed barely broke sweat to set up a meeting with Russian Daria Kasatkina.
A woeful Parmentier managed only six points in the opening set, four of them being gifted by Wozniacki’s unforced errors.
There was a brief smile on wildcard Parmentier’s face when she finally won three games -- after losing the first 11.
Wozniacki quickly regained control and wrapped it up on the second match point when the Frenchwoman sent a forehand long -- her 27th unforced error of the match.
HEARTBREAK
Elina Svitolina’s French Open breakthrough was again put on hold when the Ukrainian fourth seed was knocked out 6-3, 7-5 in the third round by Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu.
The 23-year-old Svitolina, who trains at Roland Garros and was a quarter-finalist in 2015 and 2017, had been tipped as one of the potential winners for the second year in a row after winning the Italian Open, but she never found her groove on Court One.
She dropped serve five times and made 29 unforced errors, bowing out on the first match point when she buried another forehand into the net.
Buzarnescu, who reached the final in Prague on clay last month, next faces American 13th seed Madison Keys, who overcame a second set wobble to beat Japan’s Naomi Osaka 6-1, 7-6(7).
A match between two of the biggest hitters on the WTA Tour failed to really catch fire on a cool and half-empty Suzanne Lenglen Court with Keys helped on her way to the first set by a succession of wild errors from Osaka.
Keys broke for a 3-1 lead in the second set and looked to be closing in on a straightforward victory when Osaka suddenly found her range and levelled the set.