Second seed Karolina Pliskova and ninth seed Elina Svitolina are both leaving the French Open in the third round, but we can’t say it’s too much of a surprise, as clay is Pliskova’s least favorite surface, while Svitolina entered the tournament saying that every match would be like a final after injury problems.
Even though 27-year-old Karolina Pliskova came to Paris fresh off her title run at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, Croatian seed No.31 Petra Martic proved to be too much for the Czech, breaking her twice in the first set and three times in the second to win the match 6-3 6-3, as the big-serving Pliskova won just 33% of points behind her second serve. The 2019 Istanbul champion Martic now leads the WTA tour with 14 clay victories this season.
The blockbuster encounter between Elina Svitolina and 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza opened with seven successive breaks. The first player to hold serve was the 19th-seeded Muguruza for a 5-3 lead and one more break put the first set in her hands, as Svitolina won a total of just seven points on her serve.
In the second set, Muguruza won as many as 11 out of 12 points behind her first serve, but her first-serve percentage was at just 48%. Still, the Spaniard was again better than her opponent, taking four games in a row from being a break down at 2-3 to triumph 6-3 6-3 and move into the fourth round with at Roland Garros for the sixth consecutive year.
