After waiting a long time for the rain to stop falling in Florida, several French people were in the running on Saturday. And they experienced varying fortunes.
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The rain stopped falling late in Miami, and the second round of the Masters 1000 was finally able to be played on Saturday March 23. After beating Viktoriya Tomova, who ended up giving up (6-1, 5-2), Caroline Garcia won her place for the next round where she will meet Naomi Osaka. Another Habs in the running, Luca Van Assche, battled for a long time against Casper Ruud before falling (7-6, 1-6, 6-1). Gaël Monfils also qualified for the 3rd round by beating Jordan Thompson and has a meeting with Carlos Alcaraz.
Garcia and Monfils pass, Van Assche not far from the feat
Lucas Van Assche pushed Casper Ruud, 8th in the ATP ranking, to the point of forcing him to play a tie-break in the first set. And if the winner of Roland-Garros juniors 2021 lost this decisive game 7-6 (5), he continued this good momentum by largely dominating the Norwegian in the second set (6-1), in 31 minutes. But in the decisive round, the 19-year-old Frenchman was broken from the start, before losing (6-1).
Caroline Garcia, for her part, resumed her match against Viktoriya Tomova where the rain had stopped her the day before: in the middle of the third game. The first set was quickly won by the Frenchwoman (6-1), who was preparing to complete the second on the same basis, when the Bulgarian gave up at 5-2.
Gaël Monfils concluded the beautiful French night by winning in three sets against the Australian Jordan Thompson, 34th in the world, despite a difficult start (6-7, 6-1, 6-2). Victim of a small injury to his ankle which he wanted to be harmless at the start of the match, the Frenchman still found his service game and scored 8 aces. In the 3rd round, he will meet Carlos Alcaraz for the second time in his career in a gala match. The Spaniard was quick against his compatriot Roberto Carballes Baena, 64th in the world, whom he swept aside in 1h21 of play (6-2, 6-1).
Tsitsipas collapses, Murray and Zverev expeditious
What happened in Stefanos Tsitsipas’ head? Visibly in poor form, the Greek lost in two sets (6-2, 6-4) against the Canadian Denis Shapovalov, who thus offers himself his first victory in two years against a player in the world top 20. Despite an endless eighteen-minute game won in the second set to keep believing, Stefanos Tsitsipas ended up breaking down, and only stayed for 1 hour 37 minutes on the American court.
At 36, the veteran of the tournament, Andy Murray, did not tremble against the Argentinian Thomas Martin Etcheverry, who is ahead of him by 32 places in the ATP rankings (7-6, 6-3). As Alexander Zverev, who only spent 1h17 on the courts against Felix Auger-Aliassime, relegated to 36th place in the world (6-2, 6-4). Third in the ranking, the Italian Jannik Sinner won against his compatriot Andrea Vavassori (6-3, 6-4).
On the WTA side, the first in the world ranking, Iga Swiatek won very easily against the Italian Camila Giorgi (6-1, 6-1). Plunging to 229th rank, Naomi Osaka beat Elina Svitolina 6-2, 7-6 (5) and will meet Caroline Garcia in the next round. But the real surprise of the night remains the elimination of Aryna Sabalenka, beaten by the Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina, 36th in the world (6-4, 1-6, 6-1). For her second match since the death of her ex-companion Konstantin Koltsov on Monday, the Belarusian appeared tense, throwing her racket to the ground several times in rage after her defeat.