Emphatic Elena Rybakina wins 10 games in a row to defeat Greet Minnen as rain halts outside court action

As has been the case on and off in recent days, the rain has halted proceedings mostly at Roland Garros but nothing can stop the Elena Rybakina train it seems as she emphatically saw off Greet Minnen to reach the second round at the French Open.

Rybakina sealed a 6-2, 6-3 win over Minnen and in the process also alleviated illness fears which saw the World No.4 out of Rome in recent weeks and also not play Roland Garros last year. As a result, the status of her French Open was up in the air. But she made her way through against the Belgian to reach the second round.

Next up will be potentially Angelique Kerber if any play ends up happening on outside courts. She faces Arantxa Rus. But there is an opportunity there for Rybakina in a fairly wide open section. Elise Mertens is the likely seed that awaits in the fourth round.

She faces Maria Lourdes Carle, while Petra Martic v Kiki Mladenovic is also in the same section awaiting the winner of the Belgian and Argentine. But they will be fearing Rybakina now after this latest win. It was a pretty slow start for Rybakina, but after being broken early to go 2-0 down, she won ten games in a row in order to go 4-0 up in the second set on Minnen. She even missed a match point for a 6-1 second set before finally getting over the line. She claimed it on her third match point. Over on Court Philippe-Chatrier, it is set to be an emotional farewell for Alize Cornet facing Qinwen Zheng.

Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic also lead the way and on a rain hit day, the chances at least in the short term of action on the outside courts remains at a minimum.