PARIS: Second seed Karolina Pliskova was knocked out of Roland Garros by 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko in the second round on Thursday.
World number 43 Ostapenko triumphed 6-4, 6-2 and will face next either Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open winner and runner-up in Paris in 2018, or Spain’s Paula Badosa for a spot in the last 16. Pliskova made the semi-finals in 2017 but has now failed to get beyond the third round in her eight other appearances in the French capital.
“I tried to be aggressive but not miss too much as she’s such a great player,” said Ostapenko who had lost in the first round in her last two visits to the French Open. “I had to bring the best tennis that I could.”
Latvian Ostapenko, 23, fired 27 winners to Pliskova’s nine as the Czech’s Grand Slam year ended in further disappointment. She made the third round at the Australian Open and only second at the US Open but she arrived in Paris having retired from the Italian Open final against Simona Halep with a thigh injury.
Earlier, Novak Djokovic, who was likened to a snake by his vanquished first round Roland Garros opponent, tackles spear-fishing fan Ricardas Berankis on Thursday for a place in the last 32.
“It’s like a snake killing its prey. I felt suffocated,” said Sweden’s Mikael Ymer who took just six games off Djokovic in the opening round in Paris. Djokovic, chasing a second French Open and an 18th major, now has a 32-1 record for the year. His only defeat was his disqualification from the US Open.
“Everyone has been talking about the conditions this year. The balls, the heavy clay, the cold weather. It all affects the play, of course,” said Djokovic of the autumn weather in the French capital. “But I think it’s quite suitable to my style of the game.”
Now it’s the turn of Lithuania’s Berankis, ranked 66, to try and reel in the Serb who is bidding to become the first man in half a century to win all four Grand Slam tournaments twice. The 30-year-old Berankis lists spear-fishing as one of his hobbies on the lakes of Lithuania.
He may have more time for that hobby after Thursday against Djokovic who is playing in the second round for the 16th time. At least Berankis will be buoyed by having at last made the second round in Paris for the first time after falling at the opening hurdle six times.
Greek fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who made the last 16 in Paris last year but had to come back from two sets down in the first round against Jaume Munar, faces wily Uruguayan veteran Pablo Cuevas.
The 34-year-old world number 60 has made the third round on four occasions and all six of his career titles have come on clay. However, Tsitsipas has won all three of their meetings, two of them on clay including on his way to the runners-up spot in Hamburg last week.
Andrey Rublev, the mop-topped Russian who defeated Tsitsipas in the Hamburg final and now has three titles in 2020, also needed to come back from two sets down in his opener against Sam Querrey of the United States.
The 22-year-old will Thursday face Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the 21-year-old world number 70, who enjoyed a run to the last 16 at the US Open. In the women’s tournament which reeled Wednesday from the injury-enforced withdrawal of three-time champion Serena Williams, the spotlight falls on four Grand Slam champions who are in action.
Jelena Ostapenko, the shock 2017 winner in Paris, tackles second seed Karolina Pliskova, a semi-finalist in that year, while Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin meets Ana Bogdan, one of five Romanians to make the second round.