PARIS.- The American Coco Gaufffourth in the world and defending champion in Roland Garroswas eliminated on Saturday in the third round of the grand slam Parisian when he fell to the Austrian of Russian origin Anastasia Potapova30th in the ranking WTA.
Gauff lost the duel 4-6, 7-6 (7/1) and 6-4, becoming the third member of the Top 5 of the women’s world rankings to fall at this Roland Garros, after the goodbye of her compatriot Jessica Pegula (5th) in the first round and the world number two, the Kazakh Elena Rybakinain the second round.
This Roland Garros is being shaken by surprises also in the men’s draw, where the Italian Jannik Sinnerworld number one, and the Serbian Novak Djokovicwinner of 24 Grand Slam tournaments, failed to survive the first week of the tournament.
Gauff suffers enormous disappointment with this premature defeat, as happened last year when he lost in the first round in Wimbledon or in the past US Openwhere he said goodbye in the round of 16.
Potapova, who equals her personal best performance at Roland Garros by reaching the round of 16 as in the 2024 edition, will face the Russian in the next round Anna Kalinskaya (22nd), who a few hours before defeated the Colombian Maria Camila Osorio (86th).
In the last set, Potapova soon separated herself (3-1) from Gauff, who reacted (3-3). The fight was even in the final stages, where the North American lost her serve at 5-4 to complete her elimination.
“I have no words,” was the first reaction of Potapova, winner of three tournaments on the professional circuit, all of them in the category WTA250.
“I’m very proud of this, of having continued to fight” after losing a closely contested first set.
As Potapova herself explained, this victory directly becomes part of the three that she considers most important in her career.
Cerúndolo wins again
The Argentinian Juan Manuel Cerúndoloexecutioner on Thursday of the world number one Jannik Sinnerstill does not wake up from his dream in Roland Garros and this Saturday he sealed his ticket to the round of 16, after winning a tough five-set match against the young Spanish promise Martin Landaluce.
“Juanma” Cerúndolo’s victory was in the super tie-break of the fifth set, to win 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (4/7) and 7-6 (10/8), in a third round clash of 5 hours and 58 minutes.
