There will be three French in the third round to win a ticket for the final table. Sean Cuenin, Geoffrey Blancaneaux and Océane Babel won three brilliant victories, while all the other French representatives hit the clay on Wednesday May 18. The situation is not so much better on the side of the big names involved, since Fernando Verdasco and Sara Errani have both been eliminated. Tour of the courts on the third day of qualifying
Sean Cuenin and Geoffrey Blancaneaux last survivors among men
They were the only flashes of light on this blue afternoon. Sean Cuenin (18, 595th player in the world) went for an authoritative victory against the Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan (7-6 (6), 6-4). After a tight first set, concluded in the tie-break in his favor, Cuenin, well helped by his good service (89% first serve), unrolled in the second set to afford a player nine years his senior, 178th in the ATP rankings. “There’s a lot of difference in the standings, but if I do qualifying it’s to qualify, I’m not necessarily thinking about the standings. If I make the qualifiers, it’s because I think I have the level to beat this kind of guys“, he assured after the meeting. He will face the Italian Giulio Zeppieri in the next round, for a ticket for the final table.
Geoffrey Blancaneaux won a courageous success against Briton Liam Brody (6-1, 6(2)-7, 6-4), after more than two hours of opposition. The Frenchman seemed to be on the right track, however, and was leading 6-1, 5-1, but he suffered a big slack and was pushed into the third set. He ended up getting out of it, supported by a boosted court No. 6, to give himself a chance to clinch the first final draw of his career at Roland-Garros. He will challenge the winner of the clash between Masur and De Jong.
For the other Frenchmen involved, the day was more difficult. Almost all of them fell against those better ranked than them, most of them seeded. Alexandre Müller, who opened the ball this morning, could not resist the Italian Franco Agamenone, despite a very disputed first set (7-6 (6), 6-2). Enzo Couacaud for his part suffered the law of the Dutchman Tim van Rijthoven (6-4, 7-5). As for the young Gabriel Debru (16), he gave the Slovak Norbert Gombos a hard time, before eventually losing (6-4, 7-6 (5)).
Océane Babel continues on her way
Océane Babel will fight to the end to reach the final table. She passed the second qualifying round after a tough battle lasting more than two hours against Georgian Ekaterine Gorgodze (1-6, 6-4, 6-4). The case was however badly embarked after a complicated first set, where the young French suffered without being able to reply. But she was able to recover to get, in her mind, a deserved victory against the seeded number 10.
On the other hand, Selena Janicijevic and Jessika Ponchet did not pass the cut. After pocketing the first set, Janicijevic had to give in to Romanian Irina Bara, 114th in the WTA rankings and seeded No. 5 (5-7, 6-4, 6-3). Ponchet was outclassed by the German Jule Niemeier, seeded n°2 in these qualifications (6-4, 6-0).
Sara Errani and Fernando Verdasco are already saying goodbye
There will be no new adventure on Parisian clay for Sara Errani. The former world number 5, finalist of the tournament in 2012, was eliminated in the second qualifying round by the Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, 121st player in the world (6-1, 6-2), in just over an hour Totally overwhelmed, the Italian fails at this stage of the competition for the second year in a row.
Fernando Verdasco will not be there either. The former world number 7 was beaten in three sets by the Swiss Alexander Ritschard (6-2, 3-6, 6-3). Led, the Spaniard, who had already played to scare himself in his first match, this time did not find the resources to catch up, and left the Porte d’Auteuil tournament without glory.