Australian wildcard Daria Saville has romped into the third round at Roland-Garros with a shock upset over two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.
Following an opening round win victory over Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece, Saville, the world No.127, put in a highly efficient performance to win in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 to become the Australia’s only singles player to go beyond the second round in Paris.
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Saville, 28, only had seven unforced errors against her Czech opponent, while Kivitova racked up plenty of mistakes on the stats sheet.
After extended periods off the court following Achilles surgery, the Australian is set to receive a boost in the rankings with the unexpected win, in her quest to become Australia’s No.1 female player following Ash Barty’s retirement.
Saville remains the only singles representative in the draw after Ajla Tomljanovic, fell short in a tight three-setter against Varvara Gracheva, going down 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, while men’s qualifier Jason Kubler was eliminated by rising British star Cameron Norrie.
Meanwhile, U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu is out of Roland-Garros in the second round.
Raducanu lost to Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 to end her tournament debut.
The 19-year-old Raducanu broke Sasnovich in the fifth game of the opening set, hitting consecutive backhand winners followed by a forehand to clinch it.
Sasnovich couldn’t convert on three chances to break her opponent in the first set but took advantage with two breaks to start the second, when the 47th-ranked player also won 12 of 14 service points.
The 12th-seeded Raducanu failed to convert on five break-point chances at 1-1 in the third set as Sasnovich recorded her 16th career victory over a top-20 player.
Raducanu, who also lost to Sasnovich at Indian Wells last year in the Briton’s first match after winning the title at Flushing Meadows, had 17 winners and 33 unforced errors on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
Sasnovich advanced to the third round at Roland-Garros for the first time. This is her seventh appearance.
Former grand slam champions Angelique Kerber and Victoria Azarenka also advanced to the third round.
Kerber, who won her first clay title in six years on the eve of the French Open, defeated French wildcard and 2020 junior champion Elsa Jacquemot 6-1, 7-6 (7/2) as she seeks the only Grand Slam missing from her collection.
Azarenka of Belarus also reached the third round by beating Andrea Petkovic 6-1, 7-6 (3).
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