ZVEREV STORMS INTO ROUND 3 AFTER VICTORY IN STRAIGHT SETS

PARIS: German sixth seed Alexander Zverev blew hot and cold with his serve but had enough artillery to take down Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin 7-6(4) 6-3 7-6(1) to reach the third round of the French Open on Wednesday.

The 182nd-ranked Russian went toe-to-toe with Zverev in the baseline battle in the opening set before the German got the crucial break in the 11th game.

Serving for the set, Zverev committed two double-faults to give away the advantage and had another in the tie-breaker but he recovered to take the lead with back-to-back aces.

Double faults continued to haunt the 24-year-old German in the second set as he smashed his racquet on the court in frustration and suffered a service break but he recovered spectacularly to take the set by winning five games in a row.

Zverev, who served 15 aces against 10 double faults, outplayed Safiullin in the third-set tiebreaker to set up a clash against the winner of the match between Serbians Laslo Djere and Miomir Kecmanovic.

Bencic knocked out

Tenth-seeded Belinda Bencic’s campaign at Roland Garros is over. She lost 6-2, 6-2 to Daria Kasatkina in the second round.

Bencic struggled with her serve throughout and was broken four times by her Russian rival.

The Swiss player has never progressed past the third round at the French Open in five appearances.

Kasatkina made it to the quarterfinals in Paris in 2018 but it’s the first time this season that she has won consecutive matches on clay.

Marketa Vondrousova, the 20th seed, ended local wild card Harmony Tan’s run with a crushing 6-1 6-3 victory.

The Czech cruised past Tan without dropping serve, winning 80% of her first-serve points.