Kenin, Tsitsipas avenge losses to reach semis in Paris

Sofia Kenin, playing in the 2018 Berkeley (Calif.) Challenger, beat
fellow American Danielle Collins 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 today in the French
Open. Kenin had been 0-3 against Collins. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Sofia Kenin and Stefanos Tsitsipas gained revenge today to reach the French Open semifinals.

   The fourth-seeded Kenin beat unseeded Danielle Collins 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 in an all-American matchup in Paris. Collins, an Australian Open semifinalist last year, suffered from an apparent stomach ailment in the third set.

   Kenin, who won her first Grand Slam title in this year's Australian Open, had never won a set against Collins in three career meetings. 

   The fifth-seeded Tsitsipas, from Greece, outclassed 13th-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 in a clash of 22-year-old rising stars. Rublev defeated Tsitsipas 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 10 days ago in the Hamburg final.

   Both Kenin, 21, and Collins, 26, have excelled in Northern California. Kenin won Challengers in Sacramento in 2016 at 17, Stockton in 2017 and Berkeley in 2018. Collins reached the final of the inaugural (2018) Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., on the WTA Tour.

   Rublev also is no stranger to NorCal. He lost to former world No. 2 Tommy Haas in the first round of the 2015 Aptos (Calif.) Challenger at 17.

   Kenin will face seventh-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic on Thursday after the 6 a.m. (PDT) semifinal between unseeded Iga Swiatek, 19, of Poland and qualifier Nadia Podoroska of Argentina (Tennis Channel).

   Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion and a French Open semifinalist in 2012, dismissed unseeded Laura Siegemund, who won the U.S. Open doubles crown with Vera Zvonareva last month, 6-3, 6-3. 

   Kvitova, a 30-year-old left-hander, is 2-0 (1-0 on clay) against Kenin. Kvitova suffered career-threatening cuts to her left hand in a December 2016 attack at her home in the Czech Republic and missed more than four months.

   Tsitsipas, a semifinalist in last year's Australian Open, will take on top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who won the 2016 French Open to complete a career Grand Slam, on Friday. 

   Djokovic defeated 17th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in a rematch of their infamous fourth-round encounter in the U.S. Open last month. Djokovic was defaulted after losing his serve to trail 5-6 in the first set and accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball in anger. It's the 33-year-old Serb's only loss in 37 matches this year.

   Djokovic, who's right-handed with a two-handed backhand, played today with tape on his neck to address a nagging problem and took a medical timeout for a left-arm issue after losing the first set.

   "I definitely didn't feel great coming onto the court today," Djokovic said on atptour.com. "I don't want to take away anything from his good performance. Especially for a set and a half, he was the better player, dictating play. I was very neutral.

   "I didn't have much energy really ... in my legs or movement or game itself. It took me about a set and a half to really get comfortable and start really playing the way I should."

   Countered Carreno Busta: "Every time the (match) gets complicated, he asks for medical assistance. He has been doing this for a long time. I knew what would happen at the U.S. Open, what would happen here and what will continue to happen."

   Djokovic is 3-2 (1-0 on clay) against Tsitsipas with straight-set victories in their last two meetings, both on hardcourts.

   In the women's doubles quarterfinals, 14th-seeded Alexa Guarachi of Chile and Desirae Krawczyk of the United States eliminated seventh-seeded Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan 6-0, 6-4.

   Each player except Aoyama was born in the U.S. and played in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Shibahara, 22, was born in Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area and starred at UCLA. 

   Guarachi and Krawczyk — former standouts at Alabama and Arizona State, respectively — were coming off a straight-set victory over top-seeded Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic.

   Krawczyk won the doubles title in the 2017 Sacramento (Calif.) Challenger with Giuliana Olmos, a product of Fremont in the Bay Area who plays for Mexico.

   In the third round of boys singles, seventh-seeded Dominic Stephan Stricker of Switzerland beat ninth-seeded Arthur Fery, a Stanford freshman from Great Britain, 6-4, 6-3.

   Fery and compatriot Felix Gill outplayed Dev Javia of India and Li Hanwen of China 7-5, 6-2 in the second round of doubles.

Qualifier makes history; Diego downs Domi in marathon

Elina Svitolina, playing in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford,
lost to qualifier Nadia Podoroska 6-2, 6-4 in the French Open quarterfinals.
Photo by Mal Taam 

   Both No. 3 seeds lost to Argentines today in the French Open, but one of the results was much more surprising.

   Nadia Podoroska shocked Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-2, 6-4 in Paris to become the first female qualifier ever to reach the semifinals at Roland Garros and the first to do so in any Grand Slam tournament since Alexandra Stevenson at Wimbledon in 1999.

   Entering the fortnight, Podoroska, 23, was 0-1 in the main draw of majors, having qualified for the 2016 U.S. Open. A right wrist injury sidelined her for eight months beginning in July 2017. 

  "I worked a lot with my coach during the quarantine to improve in various aspects of the game, and I understand that thanks to all that work, I was able to get here," Podoroska, who has won 13 consecutive matches and 18 of her last 19 (including two minor-league tournaments), said in an on-court interview. "I trained a lot in my shots — my forehand, backhand, the serve. But what I improve most, I think it was my mentality."   

   In the next match on Court Philippe Chatrier, 12th-seeded Diego Schwartzman topped Dominic Thiem, the runner-up to Rafael Nadal in the last two French Opens, 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2 in 5 hours, 8 minutes to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal.

   Schwartzman, only 5-foot-7 (1.70 meters) and 141 pounds (64 kilograms), twice was two points from losing in the fourth set. He will debut in the top 10 after the French Open, rising from No. 14 to at least No. 8.

   Thiem, 27, battled physical and mental fatigue after outlasting French wild card Hugo Gaston in five sets in the previous round and winning his first Grand Slam title in the recent U.S. Open.

   Schwartzman, 28, will take on the second-seeded Nadal, pursuing his fourth consecutive French Open title and 13th overall, on Friday.

   Nadal, 34, beat unseeded Jannik Sinner, a 19-year-old Italian, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-1 in a match that ended Wednesday at 1:25 a.m. Paris time. Sinner, who advanced to the second round of last year's Aptos (Calif.) Challenger one week after winning the Lexington (Ky.) Challenger, served for the first set at 6-5.

   Nadal, who has not lost a set at Roland Garros this year, fell to Schwartzman for the first time in 10 career meetings two weeks ago in the Italian Open.

   Podoroska, who will soar from No. 131 to a career high of at least No. 48, will face unseeded Iga Swiatek, 19, of Poland for the first time on Thursday. 

   Swiatek, coming off a 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of top seed and 2018 champion Simona Halep, outclassed qualifier Martina Trevisan, a 5-foot-3 (1.60-meter) left-hander from Italy, 6-3, 6-1 in 78 minutes. 

   Swiatek, the 2018 Wimbledon girls singles champion, has not lost more than four games in a set or more than five games in a match in the tournament. She joined Jadwiga Jedrzejowska in 1939 as the only Polish women to reach the French Open semifinals and will jump from No. 54 to a career high of at least No. 33.

   In a fourth-round match postponed one day by rain, unseeded Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla., outlasted 30th-seeded Ons Jabeur, the 2011 French Open girls singles champion, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. 

   Collins, a semifinalist in the 2019 Australian Open and inaugural (2018) Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., will play fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin, the reigning Australian Open champion from Pembroke Pines, Fla. 

   Collins has never dropped a set in three career matches against Kenin, who won Northern California Challengers in 2016 at 17, 2017 and 2018.

   Neither defending champion Ashleigh Barty (coronavirus concerns) nor U.S. Open winner Naomi Osaka (hamstring injury) entered the French Open. Serena Williams, a three-time champion at Roland Garros, withdrew before her second-round match with an Achilles tendon problem.

   In the first round of boys doubles, unseeded Arthur Fery, a Stanford freshman, and Felix Gill of Great Britain beat top-seeded Arthur Cazaux and Harold Mayot of France by walkover.

French Open quarterfinals to feature rematches

Novak Djokovic, practicing at Indian Wells last year, will play
Pablo Carreno Busta in a rematch of their infamous U.S. Open
encounter last month. Photo by Harjanto Sumali

   Rematches will be the theme of Wednesday's quarterfinals in the French Open.

   Most notably, top-ranked Novak Djokovic will face 17th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain. Djokovic was defaulted from the U.S. Open last month for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball after Carreno Busta had broken serve to lead 6-5 in the fourth round. Djokovic has won their three other meetings, including two on clay.

   Djokovic, who won the 2016 French Open to complete a career Grand Slam, dispatched 15th-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 today in Paris to improve to 35-1 this year. Carreno Busta outclassed qualifier Daniel Altmaier of Germany 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the French Open quarterfinals for the second time.

   Also Wednesday, fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece will take on 13th-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia in a matchup of 22-year-old rising stars. Rublev topped Tsitsipas 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 eight days ago to win the Hamburg title on clay and improve to 3-1 in the head-to-head series.

   Tsitsipas beat 18th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-3, 7-6 (9), 6-2 today to become the first Greek man to reach the French Open quarterfinals.

   Rublev, who had never won a match at Roland Garros before this year, outdueled Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in 3 hours, 54 minutes for his ninth consecutive victory. 

   On the women's side, fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin will play either 30th-seeded Ons Jabeur of Tunisia or unseeded Danielle Collins of St. Petersburg, Fla. That match was postponed by rain. 

   Kenin is 2-0 against Jabeur and 0-1 against Collins this year. Kenin — who won Northern California Challengers in 2016 at 17, 2017 and 2018 — defeated Jabeur 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open en route to her first Grand Slam title and 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the third round of the U.S. Open. Collins clobbered Kenin 6-3, 6-1 in the second round in Adelaide on a hardcourt.

   Kenin advanced today by frustrating France's Fiona Ferro, the Palermo champion in the first tournament after the WTA Tour resumed in early August, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 to reach her first quarterfinal on clay. 

   Kenin cried after the match in front of a sparse crowd. Only 1,000 spectators are allowed each day at Roland Garros because of a surge in coronavirus cases in France.

   "I was just super proud of myself," Kenin, whose only tune-up match for the French Open was a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Victoria Azarenka in the Italian Open, said on wtatennis.com. "Yes, there (were) a lot of emotions. I was just super happy that I won. The crowd wasn't the best, which is understandable, but still I wish it (had) been a little bit different. 

   "I'm super happy that I'm in the quarters. I usually don't play (well) on clay. In the juniors, I hated the clay. Last year, I started to like it for the first time."

   Seventh-seeded Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion and a French Open semifinalist in 2012, and unseeded Laura Siegemund, the reigning U.S. Open doubles champion with Vera Zvonareva, will meet after winning in straight sets. Kvitova trounced Siegemund 6-1, 6-1 in the first round of the 2015 U.S. Open in their only previous encounter.

   In a showdown between this year's Grand Slam doubles champions, seventh-seeded Mate Pavic of Croatia and Bruno Soares of Brazil outlasted third-seeded Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. 

   Ram, who was named a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley in June, and Salisbury won the Australian Open, and Pavic and Soares claimed the U.S. Open. 

   In the second round of boys singles, ninth-seeded Arthur Fery, a Stanford freshman from Great Britain, crushed Mario Mansilla Diez of Spain 6-1, 6-0 in 47 minutes.

Teen Swiatek swamps Halep to head upset parade

Top-seeded Simona Halep lost to Iga Swiatek, 19, of Poland
6-1, 6-2 in 68 minutes today in the fourth round of the French
Open. File photo by Paul Bauman

    Befitting an unusual tournament, two 19-year-olds and two qualifiers reached the French Open women's or men's quarterfinals today.

   Iga Swiatek, 19, of Poland produced the most shocking upset, dismissing top-seeded Simona Halep 6-1, 6-2 in 68 minutes in Paris. The tournament was postponed from May 24-June 7 because of the coronavirus pandemic, and only 1,000 spectators are allowed per day.

   Swiatek, who ended Halep's winning streak at 17 matches, lost to the 2018 champion 6-1, 6-0 in 45 minutes at the same stage of last year's French Open.

   "I wasn't experienced at all last year," Swiatek, the 2018 Wimbledon girls singles champion, told reporters. "It was my first match in a big stadium. Since then, I've played some big matches. Right now, I feel like I can handle the pressure.

   "I remembered that last year she beat me but lost against (17-year-old) Amanda Anisimova in the next round. I thought we could do the same thing this year but just change the names around."

   Swiatek, ranked No. 54, is scheduled to play Martina Trevisan, an Italian qualifier ranked No. 159, on Tuesday. Trevisan, a 5-foot-3 (1.60-meter) left-hander, stunned fifth-seeded Kiki Bertens, a French Open semifinalist four years ago, 6-4, 6-4. 

   Swiatek and Trevisan, 26, have split two career matches. Swiatek won in straight sets on grass in Birmingham, England, last year, and Trevisan triumphed in three sets on clay in a minor-league tournament in Swiatek's hometown of Warsaw in 2017.

   In the other women's quarterfinal in the top half of the draw, third-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine is set to meet qualifier Nadia Podoroska, the top-ranked Argentine at No. 131, for the first time.

   Svitolina, a two-time French Open quarterfinalist seeking her first Grand Slam final, dispatched France's Caroline Garcia, who has plunged from a career-high No. 4 in 2018 to No. 45, 6-1, 6-3 in 63 minutes. Podoroska, 23, topped unseeded Barbora Krejcikova, a Czech formerly ranked No. 1 in doubles, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.

   Swiatek and Podoroska became the 10th and 11th female qualifiers to reach the quarterfinals at Roland Garros and the first since Yaroslava Shvedova in 2012.

   On the men's side, 19-year-old Jannik Sinner of Italy eliminated sixth-seeded Alexander Zverev, the runner-up to Dominic Thiem in the U.S. Open last month, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Zverev said afterward that he had a fever and difficulty breathing and "shouldn't have played."

   Sinner, who advanced to the second round of last year's Aptos (Calif.) Challenger one week after winning the Lexington (Ky.) Challenger, is set to face second-seeded Rafael Nadal for the first time.

   Nadal, pursuing his fourth consecutive French Open title and 13th overall, overwhelmed Sebastian Korda, a 20-year-old qualifier from Bradenton, Fla., 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 in 1 hour, 55 minutes.   

   The third-seeded Thiem outlasted 20-year-old wild card Hugo Gaston, a 5-foot-8 (1.73-meter) left-hander from France, 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3 in 3 hours, 32 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier.

   "I think it was an amazing match by both of us," Thiem, seeking his third consecutive French Open final, said in an on-court interview. "I haven't seen for a very long time a player with such a big touch in his hands. His drop shots are just from another planet; I was sprinting like 400 times to the net. All the credit to him. If he continues like this, he's going to be a huge, huge player and make a lot of joy in this stadium in the future."

   Thiem is set to play 12th-seeded Diego Schwartzman, a 5-foot-7 (1.70-meter), 141-pound (64-kilogram) Argentine who outclassed Lorenzo Sonego of Italy 6-1, 6-3, 6-4.

   Thiem is 6-2 against Schwartzman, who beat Nadal for the first time in 10 meetings in the Italian Open quarterfinals two weeks ago. 

   In women's doubles, seventh-seeded Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan topped 10th-seeded Hayley Carter of Hilton Head Island, S.C., and Luisa Stefani of Brazil 6-4, 7-5 to reach their first Grand Slam quarterfinal together.

   The 5-foot-1 (1.54-meter) Aoyama, a semifinalist in women's doubles with Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa at Wimbledon in 2013, and Shibahara, a 22-year-old native of Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area, are scheduled to play 14th-seeded Alexa Guarachi, a U.S. native who plays for Chile, and Desirae Krawczyk, a native of Palm Desert, Calif. 

   Guarachi and Krawczyk — who starred at Alabama and Arizona State, respectively — ousted top-seeded Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 7-5.  

   In the first round of boys singles, ninth-seeded Arthur Fery, a Stanford freshman from Great Britain, beat French wild card Mehdi Sadaoui 6-4, 6-3.

Qualifier Altmaier ousts No. 7 seed to reach last 16

   Daniel Altmaier had never played in a Grand Slam tournament before the French Open, and he wasn't sure he was going to enter qualifying at Roland Garros.

   That was six victories ago. The 22-year-old German shocked Italy's Matteo Berrettini, the seventh seed and a U.S. Open semifinalist last year, 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-4 today on Court Philippe Chatrier to reach the fourth round in Paris.

   Altmaier, ranked No. 186, became just the fifth qualifier since 2000 to reach the last 16 in a major. Four accomplished the feat in the French Open: David Goffin of Belgium in 2012, Juan Ignacio Londero of Argentina in 2019 and Sebastian Korda and Altmaier this year. The exception is Hyung-Taik Lee of South Korea in the 2000 U.S. Open.

   It's the first time since 1998 that two male qualifiers reached the fourth round of the French Open. Russia's Marat Safin, who was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2016, and Germany's Jens Knippschild previously achieved that distinction.

   "It's my first time on this court and playing in Paris," Altmaier said in an on-court interview. "I'm delighted to be in the fourth round. My coach (Francisco Yunis) and I have been working so hard to be here, and while I've struggled with a few injuries, I am super-pleased (to break through) at Roland Garros.

   "Before qualifying, I was struggling with an injury, so I wasn't sure I was going to play. I hope the crowd and the TV audience enjoyed watching, as I want to entertain."

   Altmaier will face 17th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta, who reached his second U.S. Open semifinal last month, on Monday for a quarterfinal berth. Carreno Busta eliminated fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, seeded 10th, 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

   Later on Court Philippe Chatrier, top-ranked Novak Djokovic dominated lucky loser Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 to improve to 34-1 this year.

   Djokovic, who was defaulted in his fourth-round match against Carreno Busta in the U.S. Open, has lost only five games in each of his three matches at Roland Garros this year. He will play 15th-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia in the fourth round.

   Fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece led 6-1, 6-2, 3-1 when Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia retired with a foot injury.

   On the women's side, 30th-seeded Ons Jabeur of Tunisia topped eighth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, the San Jose (Calif.) runner-up last year, 7-6 (7), 2-6, 6-3 to become the first Arab woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament. 

   Jabeur, the 2011 French Open girls champion, reached her first career Grand Slam quarterfinal in this year's Australian Open. She will meet unseeded American Danielle Collins, who ousted 11th seeded Garbine Muguruza, the 2016 French Open champion, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.

   Collins, a semifinalist in the 2019 Australian Open and inaugural (2018) San Jose tournament, overcame a double-break deficit in the third set against Muguruza, a semifinalist in the last Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2017.

   Another American, fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin, dismissed qualifier Irina Bara of Romania 6-2, 6-0 in 72 minutes. Kenin — the reigning Australian Open champion who won Northern California Challengers in 2016 at age 17, 2017 and 2018 — will meet unseeded Fiona Ferro of France.

   Seventh-seeded Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion and a French Open semifinalist in 2012, beat 18-year-old Canadian left-hander Leylah Fernandez, last year's girls champion at Roland Garros, 7-5, 6-3. Kvitova trailed 1-5 and saved two set points in the first set.

   Germany's Laura Siegemund, who won the U.S. Open doubles title with Russia's Vera Zvonareva last month, surprised 13th-seeded Petra Martic, a Croat who advanced to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros last year, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-0.

   In doubles:

   —Third-seeded Rajeev Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley, and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over 14th-seeded Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin of France. 

   Ram, 36, and Salisbury, 28, won their first major men's doubles title in this year's Australian Open.

   —Second seeds and defending champions Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France beat former USC teammates Kaitlyn Christian from Orange, Calif., and Giuliana Olmos, a product of Fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area who plays for Mexico, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Qualifier Korda, 20, sets up purr-fect match vs. Nadal

Former world No. 2 Petr Korda, left, the father of Sebastian Korda, chats with
Russian Dmitry Tursunov, a former top-20 player who trained in Northern Cali-
fornia as a junior and professional, during the 2018 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Sebastian Korda idolizes Rafael Nadal so much that the 20-year-old American named his cat after the Spanish star.

   The players will meet for the first time Sunday in the fourth round of the French Open in Paris.

   "I'm praying that (Rafa) wins," Korda said today in a Tennis Channel interview before Nadal's 6-1, 6-4, 6-0 victory over Italy's Stefano Travaglia. "He's my biggest idol. He's one of the reasons I play tennis. Just watching him play, (he is an) unbelievable competitor. Just from him, I have the never-give-up mentality.

   "Whenever I'm on court, I try to be like him. Growing up, I named my cat Rafa after him. That says a lot about how much I love the guy."

   The 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) Korda, who was 0-3 at the tour level entering the French Open, dominated fellow qualifier Pedro Martinez of Spain 6-4, 6-3, 6-1. Korda became the first qualifier to reach the round of 16 at Roland Garros since Alejandro Falla of Chile in 2011.

   In addition, Korda, ranked No. 213, and 20-year-old Frenchman Hugo Gaston, a wild card ranked No. 239, became the first players ranked outside the top 200 to gain the fourth round of the French Open since No. 283 Arnaud Di Pasquale of France in 2002.

   Gaston — a 5-foot-8 (1.73-meter), 149-pound (68-kilogram) left-hander — eliminated 16th-seeded Stan Wawrinka, the 2015 champion, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0. Wawrinka, 35, underwent two operations on his left knee in 2017.

   Korda, who ousted No. 1 American John Isner in the second round, is the only U.S. man left in singles following 27th-seeded Taylor Fritz's 7-6 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (17) loss to Italian drop-shot artist Lorenzo Sonego. The 30-minute, third-set tiebreaker, which ended on Sonego's seventh match point, was the second-longest in Grand Slam history.

   Fritz won consecutive Northern California Challengers in Sacramento and Fairfield at 17 in 2015.

   Korda has played in four NorCal Challengers, reaching the third round of qualifying in Stockton at 17 in 2017, losing in the first round of qualifying in Tiburon and Stockton in 2018, and advancing to the second round of the main draw in Fairfield last October.

   A native and resident of Bradenton, Fla., Korda is part of a family of professional athletes. His father, Petr Korda from the Czech Republic, reached the final of the 1992 French Open and climbed to a career-high No. 2 after winning the 1998 Australian Open. 

   Rail thin, Petr Korda tested positive for doping later in 1998 and was suspended for 12 months. He retired at age 30 shortly before the ban took effect.

   Sebastian's Czech mother, Regina Rajchrtova, peaked at No. 26 on the women's tour in 1991, and his sisters — Jessica, 27, and Nelly, 22 — play on the LPGA Tour.

   "(My dad is) incredibly supportive," said Sebastian, who will soar 82 places to a career-high of at least No. 131 after the French Open. "My goal in life is to win two Grand Slams so I have one more than he has. That's what I'm going for.

   "Both my parents are incredible. With the way that everything is going right now, they're super proud. I can't be more grateful for them."

   U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem, seeded third, and runner-up Alexander Zverev, seeded sixth, advanced in straight sets. Thiem has reached the last two French Open finals, losing to Nadal each time.

   Meanwhile, two qualifiers reached the fourth round of women's singles. 

   Martina Trevisan, a 5-foot-3 (1.60-meter) Italian left-hander ranked No. 159, saved two match points in a 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3 win over 20th-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece. Sakkari advanced to the final of the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., in 2018.

   Nadia Podoroska, the top-ranked Argentine at No. 131, outclassed Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-2. Schmiedlova was coming off a 6-2, 6-2 victory over 10th-seeded Victoria Azarenka, the U.S. Open runner-up three weeks ago.

   Top-seeded Simona Halep demolished 25th-seeded Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-1 in 54 minutes to avenge a loss to the U.S. teenager in last year's quarterfinals. Anisimova, whose father died in August 2019, won her first professional title at 15 in the 2017 Sacramento Challenger.

   Third-seeded Elina Svitolina, a French Open quarterfinalist in 2015 and 2017, and fifth-seeded Kiki Bertens, a semifinalist at Roland Garros in 2016, won in straight sets.

   France's Caroline Garcia, who has tumbled from a career-high No. 4 in 2018 to No. 45, topped 16th-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium 1-6, 6-4, 7-5.

   In the second round of doubles:

   —Third-seeded Rajeev Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley, and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain routed Alex de Minaur and Matt Reid of Australia 6-3, 6-1 in 51 minutes. 

   Ram, 36, and Salisbury, 28, won their first Grand Slam men's doubles title, together or separately, in this year's Australian Open.

   —Seventh-seeded Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan edged Cornelia Lister of Sweden and Shelby Rogers of Charleston, S.C., 6-7 (7), 6-2, 7-6 (4).

   Shibahara, 22, was born in Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area and starred at UCLA.

Stephens, second-seeded Pliskova exit early in Paris

Jelena Ostapenko, who won the 2017 French Open at 20,
beat second-seeded Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-2 today in the
second round at Roland Garros. 2016 photo by Paul Bauman

   Sloane Stephens' tailspin continued today with her earliest loss in the French Open since 2011.

   Stephens, the 29th seed and 2018 runner-up, fell to 87th-ranked Paula Badosa of Spain 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the second round in Paris. 

   Stephens, a 27-year-old Fresno, Calif., product now based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., made her earliest exit from Roland Garros since losing in the first round in her tournament debut and fell to 4-11 this year. The 2017 U.S. Open champion has not reached a quarterfinal since last year's French Open in June.

   Ranked a career-high No. 3 in 2018, Stephens is projected to drop four spots to No. 38 after Roland Garros.

   Badosa, who won the 2015 French Open girls singles title, reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. The 22-year-old New York native is scheduled to play unseeded Jelena Ostapenko, the women's singles champion at Roland Garros in 2017 at 20, on Saturday. 

   Ostapenko, a 23-year-old Latvian, ousted second-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2 in 69 minutes. 

   Pliskova, formerly ranked No. 1, also lost in the second round of the U.S. Open last month. The runner-up in the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, she retired from the Italian Open final two weeks ago with a left thigh injury.

   After two rounds of the French Open, only three U.S. women — fourth-seeded Sofia Kenin, 25th-seeded Amanda Anisimova and unseeded Danielle Collins — remain in singles.

   In the men's draw, top-ranked Novak Djokovic routed Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 in 1 hour, 23 minutes to improve to 33-1 in 2020. Djokovic was defaulted from the U.S. Open for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball. 

   Djokovic, who won the 2016 French Open to complete a career Grand Slam, has lost only 10 games in two matches in this year's tournament. 

   Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain topped ninth-seeded Denis Shapovalov, a 21-year-old Canadian, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 8-6 in 5 hours. Shapovalov, who reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal in the U.S. Open, served for today's match at 5-4 and 6-5 in the fifth set.

   The 27-year-old Carballes Baena, ranked No. 101, beat a top-10 player, advanced to the third round of a major and won a five-set match for the first time.

   The only American men left in singles are 27th-seeded Taylor Fritz and 20-year-old qualifier Sebastian Korda, the son of 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda of the Czech Republic.

   In the first round of women's doubles, seventh-seeded Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan crushed Bernarda Pera, a Croatia-born American, and Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic 6-0, 6-1 in 43 minutes. Shibahara, 22, was born in Mountain View in the San Francisco Bay Area and starred at UCLA.

  Former USC teammates Kaitlin Christian, from Orange, Calif., and Giuliana Olmos, a Bay Area product who plays for Mexico, defeated Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia and Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine 6-3, 6-2.

   Top-seeded Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic eliminated Maria Sanchez, a 30-year-old Modesto, Calif., product now based in Los Angeles, and Astra Sharma of Australia 6-1, 6-4.