Alcaraz beats Sinner again to win the Italian Open and solidify his status as French Open favorite

PARIS: Reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame a minor blip to reach the French Open third round on Wednesday as women’s title rivals Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka made short work of their opponents.
Second seed Alcaraz came through 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 against Hungarian Fabian Marozsan to earn his 17th win in 18 matches on clay this season.
“Second set, he started to play better and he didn’t miss a lot so it was a little bit difficult to deal with his game,” said Alcaraz.
“I’m really happy I stayed strong and refreshed myself. In the third set, I started to play better and better which helped me have a really good last two sets.”
Alcaraz, a four-time Grand Slam winner, goes on to face Bosnian journeyman Damir Dzumhur for a place in the last 16.
In the women’s draw, Swiatek continued her bid for a fourth straight Roland Garros crown as she outclassed fellow former US Open champion Emma Raducanu.
The Pole beat Raducanu 6-1, 6-2 to make it five wins in as many meetings with the Briton. She racked up her 23rd consecutive victory at Roland Garros to improve her career record at the tournament to 37-2.
Swiatek is bidding to become the first woman to win four consecutive French Open titles since Suzanne Lenglen 102 years ago.
The 23-year-old arrived in Paris under a slight cloud, having not reached a WTA final since lifting the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen last year, but has made serene progress through the first two rounds.
“Honestly, I just love playing here. This place inspires me and that makes me work harder,” said Swiatek, who also captured the trophy as a teenager in 2020.
The fifth seed will play Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian for a place in the last 16.
Swiatek’s slide down the rankings has left her in the same half of the draw as world number one Sabalenka, last year’s runner-up Jasmine Paolini and Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen.
Sabalenka shook off a sluggish start to blow past Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann.
After dropping serve early in the first set, Sabalenka won 11 of the final 12 games to power to a 6-3, 6-1 win.
“It doesn’t matter what the scoreboard says, she really made me work for every point,” said Sabalenka, who has conceded just five games through two rounds.
The Belarusian has never reached the French Open final and is hoping to banish the memories of a painful quarter-final loss to Mirra Andreeva in 2024.
Paolini moved into the third round as she brushed aside Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-3 to stretch her winning streak to eight matches following her triumph at the Italian Open.
The fourth seed from Italy advances to play Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva.
Zheng 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.
Other seeds to progress included former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, Elina Svitolina and Amanda Anisimova.
Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open winner, rallied to win in three sets, but Russian 11th seed Diana Shnaider lost to Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska.
Twice former French Open runner-up Casper Ruud was the biggest casualty on Wednesday, crashing out in four sets to Portugal’s Nuno Borges.
Seventh seed Ruud won the first set against world number 41 Borges but was hampered by a knee injury as he slumped to a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0 defeat.
“I actually felt it quite early in the first set,” said Ruud, uncertain whether he would be fit for Wimbledon. “It’s hopefully nothing too serious.”
There were no such problems for in-form Italian eighth seed Lorenzo Musetti, who raced past Colombian lucky loser Daniel Elahi Galan 6-4, 6-0, 6-4.
Musetti has reached at least the semifinals in all three Masters 1000 events on clay in 2025. He will next play Argentina’s Mariano Navone.
Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 20th seed, suffered his earliest French Open exit in seven years as the 2021 runner-up lost in four sets to Matteo Gigante.
The Italian qualifier goes through to face Ben Shelton, who received a walkover as Hugo Gaston pulled out with an injury.
Denmark’s Holger Rune, the only man to beat Alcaraz on clay this year in the Barcelona final, beat American wild card Emilio Nava 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in the night match.

PARIS: Alexandra Eala on Tuesday achieved a first Grand Slam match win for a Filipino woman, saying she hoped her doubles success at the French Open was part of “a new era for sport” in her country.

She teamed up with Mexico’s Renata Zarazua to defeat Britain’s Emily Appleton and Spain’s Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers 7-5, 6-4 and book a place in the second round.

The win came two days after the 20-year-old, the first woman from her country to compete in a Grand Slam, was eliminated in the first round of the singles by Emiliana Arango of Colombia 6-0, 2-6, 6-3.

“It’s so heartwarming,” Eala told AFP of her Grand Slam match win.

“Of course, it’s always good to come back and compete well after a singles loss, especially after a tight one.

“I’m feeling good, it’s my debut in Grand Slam doubles so I’m feeling happy to be playing with Renata and to have my first Slam win.

“Of course, it was a difficult (singles) loss but in the end I think there’s things to take away and I try to do better in the doubles.”

The support from home has been “positive,” she said.

“They’re happy to see a Filipino competing in the main draw in Paris.”

Eala is part of a new generation of Filipino sports stars. She has trained since the age of 13 at Rafael Nadal’s academy in Mallorca, Spain.

She lifted the 2022 US Open girls’ singles trophy and reached the semifinals at Miami in March when, ranked 140th in the world, she beat three Grand Slam winners in Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and world number two Iga Swiatek.

“I think we’re entering a new era for Filipino sport,” the 73rd-ranked player said, pointing to the success of gymnast Carlos Yulo who took two gold medals at the Paris Olympics last year.

“Filipinos are very talented and very hard workers. There’s a support, a community, because it’s not often you (have) seen Filipino athletes excel on the international stage, so every time someone does good we’re very happy for them.”