Welcome back to the French Open Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.
On day three of Roland Garros 2024, there were rain delays, remarkable tiebreaks, and some classic Novak Djokovic.
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Match of the day: Peyton Stearns vs Lucija Ciric Bagaric
Tip of the cap to Peyton Stearns.
She won her first WTA Tour event in Rabat on Saturday, capping it off with a hand-stand (she’s a former gymnast) that went viral. Getting to that final required winning two tiebreaks in the semis. She celebrated with some ice cream and went to sleep.
Then she needed to hustle to get to Paris. The best flight was at 6 a.m. Sunday, which meant she had to wake up at 3. Bad weather and fatigue limited her practice time, and then she had to take on Lucija Ciric Bagaric of Croatia, who got into the draw through qualifying, which means she’s found some form and was plenty dangerous.
Stearns was poised to wrap up the match in two sets, but couldn’t take her match points in the tiebreaker. She had some angry words with herself, and 12 games later found herself in another tiebreak, after Ciric Bagaric had coughed up an opportunity to serve for the match.
This time, Stearns got the job done, finishing off the decider 10-6 for the 6-3, 6-7(8), 7-6(6) win. Stearns looked about as tired as a player can look when she came to chat with reporters about an hour later.
“Weird match,” one of them offered.
“I had a lot of them lately,” she said.
Stearns swung from nearly winning to nearly losing, but held her nerve (Robert Prange/Getty Images)
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Celebration of the day:
After taking out the brightest new star in French tennis, in Paris, in five sets, the thing to do is of course to take the win and graciously move on. They’re upset, they’re frustrated, you wouldn’t want to rile them up any further.
David Goffin had other ideas.
The Belgian was revelling in his role as villain (Benoit Doppagne/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images)
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Stat of the day: Bagel for the Brits
Katie Boulter and Dan Evans’ defeats on Tuesday mean Britain’s singles involvement is over before the second round, with a record of zero wins from six matches. 0-6: practically a bagel.
It’s the first French Open with no Brits in the second round since 2020 — i.e not that long ago. And a reminder of just how much of an achievement, and how much of an outlier, Andy Murray’s successes were at this tournament. Four semi-finals, one final — not bad for a nation with pretty much zero clay-court pedigree in modern times.
Evans lost in straight sets to 13th seed Holger Rune (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
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Shock of the day:
Yulia Putintseva annihilated Sloane Stephens, the Kazakh overcoming the American 6-1, 6-2 in 55 minutes. This isn’t so much a ranking shock; there are three places between them, and Putintseva’s craft is well suited to clay. The shock is that Stephens, in 12 appearances at Roland Garros, has been knocked out in the first round just once before today.
Shot of the day
It’s not always right, but sometimes Roland Garros does call its own shots:
Here, there…everywhere 😯
Jaume Munar earns Shot of the Day with this perfect placement ✅#RolandGarros @jamunar_38 pic.twitter.com/p6S1wVD5iS
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 28, 2024
📅 Today’s key results:
- 🇦🇷 Tomas Martin Etcheverry (28) def. 🇫🇷 Arthur Cazaux, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4
- 🇰🇿 Elena Rybakina (4) def. 🇧🇪 Greet Minnen, 6-2, 6-3
- 🇳🇴 Casper Ruud (7) def. 🇧🇷 Felipe Meligeni Alves (Q), 6-3, 6-4, 6-3
- 🇨🇳 Zheng Qinwen (7) def. 🇫🇷Alize Cornet, 6-2, 6-1
- 🇦🇺 Alex de Minaur (11) def. 🇺🇸 Alex Michelsen, 6-1, 6-0, 6-2
- 🇷🇺 Anna Blinkova def. 🇷🇴 Sorana Cirstea (28), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5)
- 🇺🇸 Taylor Fritz (12) def. 🇦🇷 Federico Coria, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-1
- 🇧🇾 Aryna Sabalenka (2) def. 🇷🇺 Erika Andreeva, 6-1, 6-2
- 🇷🇸 Novak Djokovic (1) def. 🇫🇷 Pierre-Hugues Herbert, 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-4
- 🇷🇺 Mirra Andreeva def. 🇺🇸 Emina Bektas 6-2, 6-3
📅 Tomorrow’s highlights:
- 🇺🇸 Sofia Kenin vs 🇫🇷 Caroline Garcia (21), first on Philippe-Chatrier
- 🇺🇸 Ben Shelton (15) vs 🇯🇵 Kei Nishikori, first on Court 7
- 🇺🇸 Katie Volynets vs 🇨🇿 Marketa Vondrousova (5), first on Court 14
- 🇨🇦 Denis Shapovalov vs 🇺🇸 Frances Tiafoe (25), second on Court 14
- 🇱🇻 Jelena Ostapenko (9) vs 🇩🇰 Clara Tauson, second on Court 7
- 🇳🇱 Jesper de Jong vs 🇪🇸 Carlos Alcaraz (3), second on Philippe-Chatrier
- 🇵🇱 Iga Swiatek (1) vs 🇯🇵 Naomi Osaka, third on Philippe-Chatrier
- 🇷🇺 Andrey Rublev (6) vs 🇪🇸 Pedro Martinez, third on Suzanne-Lenglen
- 🇺🇸 Coco Gauff (3) vs 🇸🇮 Tamara Zidansek, fourth on Suzanne-Lenglen
- 🇫🇷 Richard Gasquet vs 🇮🇹 Jannik Sinner (2), night session on Philippe-Chatrier
- 🇺🇸 Danielle Collins (11) vs 🇷🇸 Olga Danilovic, third on Simonne-Mathieu
- 🇫🇷 Corentin Moutet vs 🇰🇿 Alexander Shevchenko, fourth on Simonne-Mathieu
Tell us what you noticed on the third day as things continue …
(Top photo: Benoit Doppagne/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images)
