The first surprise of this Roland Garros 2023 is unexpectedly given by Daniil Medvedev. The winner of the Internazionali d’Italia continues his complicated relationship with clay, and he comes out defeated in his debut at the hands of Seyboth Wld: the Brazilian wins the match with the result of 7-6, 6-7, 2-6, 6 -4.
The turning point, the initial one, is in the second set, when the number 172 in the world finds himself with two set points, to put a foot and a half towards an unpredictable second round. The number two in the world, however, clings to his game, which manages to be constant only for two partials.
In the fifth it is a lottery: the one who has the most courage wins it, that is the Brazilian tennis player, who also gives himself his first victory in a Grand Slam. In his first match at the Roland Garros after the bad injury suffered last year in the semifinal against Rafa Nadal, Alexander Zverev won on his debut, not without struggling at the start.
Three sets and two tiebreaks, the first more complicated than the second, to beat Harris with the result of 7-6, 7-6, 6-1. Casper Ruud is increasingly a certainty in Paris. He has struggled this season, even on clay, but his path to defending the final he lost last year starts well: victory in three sets against Elias Ymer in the Scandinavian derby, with the result 6-4, 6-3, 6 -2 in just over two hours of gameplay.
Holger Rune needed four sets to close out Christopher Eubanks and make it to the second round. The Dane didn’t show an excellent level of play in the second set, but he dominated the tie-break in the third and led the exchanges in the fourth. No problem for Taylor Fritz, who easily overtook his compatriot Michael Mmoh.
In the women’s singles Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina, two of the main suspects to reach the final in the upper part of the main draw, did not approach their respective first round matches, as usual, and took longer than expected to find the right feeling.
The Pole was probably influenced by the leg problems that forced her to retire in the semifinals at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, and she wanted to test her condition before increasing the laps.
Cristina Bucsa found herself ahead by a break twice, but she didn’t manage her servings well and always suffered the immediate counter break. Swiatek, in the game that ended the set, recovered from 0-30 showing her strenght.
The Spaniard hasn’t won a game in the rest of the match. The same goes for Rybakina. After an up-and-down first set, the Kazakh comfortably got rid of Brenda Fruhvirtova.
Below the best moments of the day 3: