Karolina Pliskova and
Jelena Ostapenko reached the
Roland Garros 2nd round in different ways as Jelena had no issues while Karolina quite a few.
The first notable names to step out for Roland Garros day 3 in the WTA part of the event were Karolina Pliskova and Jelena Ostapenko. Pliskova played against Sherif a player not ranked high but her play today would never lead you to believe that. The 1st set was rather uninteresting as every game was a copy of the previous one. A strong serve started it and an unforced error ended it. After 50 minutes of that, we arrived in a tiebreak where the Egyptian outplayed Pliskova to win it 11-9.
That would be the last good thing she did in that match as she completely faltered as the match went on. Her strong serve stopped working and her winning chances diminished with it. Pliskova broke her 3 times in the 2nd set en route to a 6-2 finish. Sherif played better in the 3rd but Pliskova controlled the tempo and broke her at the perfect timing to end it with 6-4.
Jelena Ostapenko enjoyed a much better day at the office than Pliskova as her match lasted only 63 minutes and gave us only 15 games. From the start, she looked focused and played better in every facet of the game. Madison Brengle gave her best but American's don't enjoy clay and the clay doesn't give them much in return. It was far from the perfect day for Ostapenko as her serving woes continued today similar to last week. She faced 17 breakpoints but saved 15 of them en route to a 6-2 6-1 victory.
She will need to be better if she hopes for a good run and 8 double faults won't do in the next round.