Cornet through as Les Bleus mount charge

PARIS: Alize Cornet reached the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time on Friday, hoping to lead a wave of French players into the last 16 at their home tournament.
The French number one, the latest to feel the weight of home expectation after a 15-year gap since Mary Pierce claimed the title, beat Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 4-6 6-3 7-5.
When Lucic-Baroni fired a return of service long on match point, 29th seed Cornet collapsed joyfully onto to her back as if celebrating the title itself.
She only has Kristina Mladenovic to share the burden in the women’s draw, but the French men are advancing en masse in a bid to reclaim La Coupe des Mousquetaires.
It has been in foreign hands since Yannick Noah’s 1983 title, but seven Frenchmen have reached the third round this year, only one short of the professional era record, and most of them were in action on Friday, day six of the tournament.
Richard Gasquet completed that group when he returned to court to finish off Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq after their second round match was tied at two sets all overnight
Gasquet won the fifth set 6-1 in 32 minutes.
“It’s very good for French tennis,” Gasquet, the 20th seed whose best performance here is the fourth round, said.
“It’s a good pressure, of course it’s difficult because everybody is expecting a lot from us and we are putting a lot of pressure ourselves on our shoulders.”
Ana Ivanovic’s French Open campaign picked up momentum when the former champion raced into the fourth round with a 6-0, 6-3 demolition of Croatian Donna Vekic on Friday.
The seventh seed, who won the Roland Garros title in 2008, suffered a minor glitch in the second set when she lost eight points in a row as Vekic moved a break up at 2-1.
But that was as close as the world number 165 came to an upset as Ivanovic, cheered on by Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, won five of the next six games on court Suzanne Lenglen.
Ivanovic, who has never made it past the last 16 here since her triumph, next faces Russian ninth seed Ekaterina Makarova.
Makarova, a semi-finalist at the US and Australian Opens, was never in trouble as she beat compatriot Elena Vesnina 6-2 6-4.
In her first two matches, Ivanovic lost the first set against Kazakh Yeroslava Shvedova and Japan’s Misaki Doi. There was no repeat on Friday when the 27-year-old dismissed the up-and-coming Vekic in ruthless fashion.
“After the first two matches, I really started to get a little bit of feeling and groove, and yesterday I had easy day. Today I really had strict game plan. I had an idea what I wanted to do, and obviously the confidence the from first two matches helped me in today’s performance,” Ivanovic told a news conference.
“When you know you are working in the right direction, it always gets you results. Today I did some things better than I did in my first two matches.”
Since 2008, the inconsistent Ivanovic had reached the last 16 in Paris on two occasions, falling at the first or second hurdle twice.
The Serb has not been beyond the fourth round since she won the title in 2008 and will have to beat ninth seed Ekaterina Makarova if she is to improve on that record.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer continued his smooth progress on Friday with a straightforward 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Bosnian Damir Dzumhur to reach the fourth round.
Swiss Federer has won all nine sets he has played at Roland Garros this year as he attempts to win the title for a second time and extend his grand slam haul to 18.
Dzumhur, 10 years younger than Federer, tested his idol on occasion, showing a nice line in drop shots, but he never really threatened to detain the second seed for too long.
Federer broke serve in the fifth game, which was sufficient to bag the first set.
A majestic backhand pass gave Federer a break at the start of the second, but then he became a little sloppy and was broken when serving at 5-2. He hit back immediately to move two sets ahead and rolled through the third with ease.