after the defeat of Varvara Gracheva in the round of 16, there are no more French players in singles in the tournament

For her fourth Roland-Garros, Varvara Gracheva stumbled in the round of 16, after a fierce fight against the Russian Mirra Andreeva on Monday.

This time, there are no more Tricolores in the running at Porte d’Auteuil. The last French representative entered, the day after the defeat of Corentin Moutet, Varvara Gracheva (88th in the world) will not go any further in this edition of Roland-Garros. Opposed to the Russian prodigy Mirra Andreeva (17 years old, 38th in the world) in the round of 16, the 23-year-old Franco-Russian lost (7-5, 6-2), after having believed in it for a long time in the first set, and despite the support of the public on the Suzanne-Lenglen court.

Between the two long-time friends, who shared the same coach for two years in Cannes, we witnessed a high-level duel. “That’s tennis!”we heard several times in the bays of the Suzanne-Lenglen court, seduced by the spectacle offered by the two women, like the match ball.

An audience delighted with the show, less so with the outcome of the meeting. “Come on Varvara, you’re the last, we believe in you”, worried one of the many French supporters of Lenglen. But the Frenchwoman was unable to do anything against the young Russian nugget.

At the age of 17, Mirra Andreeva in fact held her own, despite the doubly special context of this meeting. “It’s always difficult to play against a friend, someone you know very well. And it was difficult to play against the French public, but I am very happy”, confided the young Russian on the court, after her victory. However, it was not just emotionally that the afternoon was complicated for Andreeva.

On the court, there was in fact no longer any friendship between the two players, who went blow for blow in a very competitive first set, marked by several long, high-flying exchanges. After fifty-two minutes of play, this first round finally turned in favor of Mirra Andreeva (7-5), from which Varvara Gracheva never really recovered.

Broken at the start of the second round, the player naturalized French in June 2023 found the resources to break immediately, while we thought she was out of the race after having conceded 4 games in a row. Unfortunately, it was only a burst of pride for Varvara Gracheva, who again conceded 4 games in a row, and therefore let the set, and the match, slip away (7-5, 6-2). Beaten in two sets in 1h31, the Frenchwoman leaves Porte d’Auteuil through the front door, after playing her first career Grand Slam round of 16.