Paolini through, Alcaraz battles into third round

Paris, May 29: Jasmine Paolini moved into the French Open third round on Wednesday as defending champion Carlos Alcaraz was made to work hard in his second round clash at the French Open.

Paolini, last year's runner-up, brushed aside Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-3 to stretch her winning streak to eight matches following her triumph at the Italian Open earlier this month.

"A little bit of ups and downs but I'm happy I won," said the fourth-seeded Paolini, who next plays Russia's Anastasia Potapova or Ukraine's Yuliia Starodubtseva.

Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen punched her ticket to the last 32 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Colombia's Emiliana Arango.

The Chinese star faces another Grand Slam debutant in the next round, 18-year-old Victoria Mboko of Canada.

Defending champion Alcaraz was up for it as he dropped a set but won 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 against Fabian Marozsan at Court Philippe chatrier on Wednesday.

Alcaraz had struck 31 winners to beat qualifier Giulio Zeppieri 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the opening round.

Spaniard Alcaraz had gone down to Marozsan at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome two years ago and the Hungarian’s deft drop shot against created trouble under the roof.

But eventually Alcaraz’s greater quality shone through.

“It was a great, great match. I played well in the first set. I had really high confidence,” Alcaraz said.

“In the second set he started to play much better, really aggressively and didn’t miss at all. It was a little bit difficult dealing with his game in the second set.

“But I was pleased to stay strong and refresh in the third set and I started to play better and better. I had a really good last two sets.”

But two-time finalist Casper Ruud crashed to a surprise secind round defeat. Visibly struggling physically, Ruud went down 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0 to Nuno Borges.

It was the first major upset of the tournament as the 28-year-old Borges became the first Portuguese man to reach third round at the clay-court major.

Finalist in 2022 and 2023, Ruud made a quicky start on Court Suzanne-Lenglen but received treatment on his left knee in he third set and could hardly move from then on.

It was Borges’ maiden victory against a top-10 opponent and he faces Alexei Popyrin in the third round. 25th-seeded Australian Popyrin earlier defeated Alejandro Tabilo 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.

Lorenzo Musetti, who has reached at least the semi-finals in all three Masters 1000 events on clay in 2025, raced into the third round with a 6-4, 6-0, 6-4 win over Colombian lucky loser Daniel Elahi Galan. (AFP)