Key events
Sabalenka beats Jacquemot: 6-4, 6-2
The No 1 seed is safely through to the third round in the women’s singles.
That’s the end of our live coverage for today: thanks for reading and see you for more tomorrow.
“I was super happy inside,” says Juan Manuel Cerúndolo on TNT Sports of what was apparently a subdued celebration after victory against the fatigue-stricken Jannik Sinner earlier. “Really glad for the win, I feel bad for him cramping up, it’s not something you want for any player.
“I was really nervous, I was going home at 5-1, and suddenly it was 5-4 … I moved him around the court, tried to stay calm …”
He’s through to the third round, along with his brother Francisco.
Au revoir Daniel, and thanks.
Sabalenka is 5-1 up now in the second set v Jacquemot.
Righto, that’s me done for today. Luke McLaughlin will keep you updated on the rest of the session – Sabalenka now leads Jacquemot 7-5 4-1, while Auger-Aliassime is 4-1 up on Burruchaga in the fourth. Peace.
Gauff says it was a tough, physical match that tested her patience. She praises Sherif as a player who never gives away an easy point, saying she hit a lot of balls from above shoulder-height so hopes her team can see her arms looking muscular.
Then, when Julien Benneteau says she’s got expectations, she corrects him, saying there are none and she’s just having fun; I totally get why she’s saying that, but am less sure she truly believes it.
Finally, it’s pointed out that various of her staff are French, so she says she’s been coming to Paris since she was a kid and it’s been her favourite city since the age of 10.
Coco Gauff (4) beats Mayar Sherif 6-3 6-2
A sensational backhand, spirited flat down the line, and Gauff is through, the 3 and 2 score not reflecting how well Sherif played. Next for the champ: Boulter or Potapova.
Gauff wants this did, racing to a 5-2 40-0 second-set lead. The champ is nearly there.
Auger-Aliassime is into this now, raising break point and hammering a forehand return for the winner which puts him up 2-1 3-1. The highest seed left in the top half of the draw is looking good.
Elsewhere, Keys is nearly there, leading Ruzic 6-4 5-1; Nakashima and Van Assche are level at 1-1 in a first-set tiebreaker; and Darderi leads Comesana 6-7 6-4 1-0.
And of course Sabalenka holds then, up 30-40, unleashes three terrifying forehands, the last of them an overhead the reverberations of which have been traced as far as Ulaanbaatar; she leads 7-5 2-0.
A leaping forehand down the line gives Gauff two break points – just as Sabalenka saves three – but Sherif has serious moxie, closing to deuce … before succumbing. Gauff leads 6-3 2-1, and if she can consolidate, victory will feel close.
I don’t suppose we should be surprised to see Gauff break Sherif again for 6-3 2-1 … nor that she’s now 0-40 down. It’s not often we have so brilliant a player with so poor a serve – and we’ve watched her try all sorts to sort it over the years. But it remains a weakness, and Sherif secures another break-back with a barrage of backhands, then a gorgeous winner, her wrist breaking to get the ball flat and cross.
Hold tight Mayar Sherif! At 3-6 0-1 with a break, she looked done for, but she broke back … while Sabalenka holds for 6-5, then makes 15-40 to raise two set points. And she only needs one, Jacquemot doing too little with her opening groundstroke following a fine serve, and her backhand slice then falls wide, ruining 57 minutes of good work. Sabalenka leads 7-5.
Serving art 5-6 in the third, Burruchaga finds himself down 0-40, rushes a forehand, and Auger-Aliassime leads 4-6 6-0 7-5. It’s a long way back from here for the son of the winning goalscorer in the 1986 World Cup final.
Sabalenka holds for 5-4 then, at 30-40, earns a set point, racing in to retrieve a drop with so many options as to where her winner should go. Line looks easiest but she opts for cross … and hits the tape. That’s a big missed opportunity, and from deuce, Jacquemot closes out, a lovely forehand drop too good and the crowd duly noised up. She’s not only enjoying this, she’s carrying herself like she thinks she can win.
Gauff breaks Sherif in the first game of the second set and it seems inconceivable that she lose from here. The question really is whether she’s playing well enough to retain her title, or if that looks like a level she can hit in the next week; I’m leaning no.
Jacquemot, whose look is a bit like the murderer in an Agatha Christie, noises up the crowd after making 40-15, and though Sabalenka annihilates an overhead to make things dicier, the home favourite closes out to level set one at 4-4.
And of course, while I was focused over there, Auger-Aliassime broke Burruchaga back over here, so those two are level at 1-1 4-4, and look to be settling in for a longun.
Gauff serves out to love for a 6-3 first set, finishing it with an ace, and she’s looking good – though, to give Sherif her due, she made it difficult for a bit.
Back with the one like Felix, he’s been broken in set three and Burruchaga leads 6-4 0-6 3-4.
On Chatrier, Jaquemot has made a decent start, level at 3-3 with Sabalenka while, on Lenglen, all Sherif’s good work looks to be for nowt. Gauff waves a forehand slice, she can’t respond, and that’s a second break for 5-3.
Maria Sakkari beats Claire Liu (7)6-7 6-3 6-3
I’m delighted for Sakkari, who could never produce her best form at slams. But she’s playing well here and faces Chwalinska next.
Up 3-2, Gauff earns a break point, but we don’t play it for a while, someone in the crowd having taken a turn. Then when we get back under way, Sherif targets the forehand – as you would – with loopy top-spinners, comes in off a floaty squash-shot, and punishes the volley.
But when Sherif nets a forehand, then fails to finish the next point despite various opportunities so to do, Gauff thwacks a backhand cross on to the tootsies, a brilliant shot after terrific retrieving, and that’s the break back at 4-2 in the first.
OK, that makes a bit more sense. Sinner is a consummate athlete and, unlike Alcaraz, when the cramp did him against Djokovic in the 2023 semi, he wasn’t under any kind of pressure – quite the reverse. So it was shocking to see him suffer so much when, for example, Kouame and Vallejo, two much younger men far less used to going the distance, played for nearly five hours; that he was ill explains things.
Aha, I’ve not seen Sinner’s press conference quotations yet, but here he is now, explaining that he felt very low on energy. He tried to serve out the third, the fourth he kind of let go to preserve energy for the fifth, and the first game was very important but he couldn’t hold, then it “went downwards”.
Whewn he woke up this morning, he didn’t feel very well, so he tried to keep the points short and was hitting “very clean, very well”, but then “I just kind of hit the wall and that’s it.”
Gosh, Sakkari is now up 5-2 in the third against Liu, and after a tremendous win over Noskova in round one, she’s making decent progress – more so than on occasions when she was seeded in the top 10, And, with Chwalinska awaiting the winner in the next round, she’ll fancy her chances of progressing from there, should she make it.
Back on Lenglen, Sherif has broken Gauff back for 2-3 in the first, and she’s playing nicely here. But can she maintain her level?
Auger-Aliassime is under some pressure here. I’ve said this before, but Coach Calv Betton, a great friend of the blog, turned me on to him well before he broke through, sating he was the mover he’d ever seen on a tennis court. Since then, though, he’s barely improved and hasn’t got close to winning a major; well, this is his chance, and it’s one he might never get again. Does he have the drive and cruelty necessary to impose himself on the field? He leads 1-1 2-1 on serve.
Thanks Dom and hi again all. On Chatrier, Sabalekna and Jacquemot are almost ready to get going – I’m watching them, along with Gauff 3-1 Sherif and Auger-Aliassime 4-6 6-0 1-1 Burruchaga.
Right, with Coco Gauff 3-1 up in the first set of her match against Sherif, Daniel Harris is back in the hot-seat.
Things are hotting up, quite literally.
Surely we can’t lose both the men’s and women’s top seeds on the same second round day, can we? After Jannik Sinner’s defeat earlier today, anything is possible.
Auger-Aliassime stormed to a 6-0 win in the second set of his match with Roman Andres Burruchaga, by the way. 1-1 in sets, that one.