Alexander Zverev had significantly more trouble. The number three seeded German made up from a two-set deficit against Argentinian Sebastian Baez and fended off a match point before asserting himself 2:6.4:6.6:1.6:2.7:5.
Zverev, who had beaten Sebastian Ofner in the first round, showed a desolate performance for two sets. He was also a break behind in the decisive round and had to fend off a match point. After 3:36 hours, Zverev converted his first match point himself. “You can’t play worse than in the first one and a half sets,” said the 25-year-old after his win. “I’m happy that I was able to turn the thing in the end.”
Zverev now meets the American Brandon Nakashima. Djokovic is dealing with the Slovenian Aljaz Bedene. The 35-year-old struggled against Molcan, who has climbed to number 38 in the world rankings, in the third set, but made everything clear in the tie-break.
Further results at a glance
Late on Tuesday, fellow favorite Stefanos Tsitsipas had more trouble in the first round than originally thought. The Greek had to play five rounds against Italian Lorenzo Musetti after being 2-0 down, but won 5:7,4:6,6:2,6:3,6:2. At the start of the match, Tsitsipas was far from the form of the previous year when he advanced to the final at Roland Garros.
The Bolivian Thiem conqueror Hugo Dellien was put in his place by the Russian Karen Chatschanov in four sentences. Gilles Simon had to go over five sets, for the French it was a great success 6: 4.6: 4.4: 6.1: 6.6: 4 over Pablo Carreno-Busta. The former world number six is only 158 and had decided to play his last major in Paris. He wanted to sell himself differently than in the past eight tournaments, each with defeats at the start. “I thought it would be great to see the real Gilles Simon again,” said the 37-year-old.
With the Greek Maria Sakkari, the fifth top 10 player failed on the fourth day of Roland Garros. Last year’s semi-finalist lost to Karolina Muchova 6-7(5), 6-7(4). US Open winner Emma Raducanu has been chasing great successes at Grand Slam level since her triumph in New York in September. As in January at the Australian Open, the Brit was eliminated from the French Open in the second round, losing 6:3,1:6,1:6 to Belarusian Alyaksandra Sasnowitsch.
Source: Nachrichten
