Two-time major champion Angelique Kerber and French No. 1 Caroline Garcia each recorded wins at Roland Garros on Thursday to set up a pair of tricky third round clashes.
Garcia, the No. 7 seed, had the tougher of the two outings, needing nearly two hours to outlast Peng Shuai 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. The match was extraordinarily close, as Garcia won just one more point than Peng and each totaled more unforced errors than winners, but the home favorite saved and converted just enough break points.
Peng won the final 12 points of the second set to level the match and had a break point in the opening game of the third, but Garcia gamely fended it off and regained control from there. She quickly broke Peng in the next game, then saved a break point while serving for the set before slamming a forehand on the baseline to punctuate her win.
She will next meet Irina Begu, who knocked off No. 27 seed Zhang Shuai 6-3, 6-4. The Romanian, No. 40 in the world, earned a whopping 12 break points in the first set and needed six set points to edge ahead, then won on her second match point after being unable to serve it out.
Kerber, on the other hand, had little trouble dispatching Romania’s Ana Bogdan, needing only 62 minutes for the 6-2, 6-3 decision. The German, seeded 12th, played a characteristically defensive game, but still tallied 21 winners and continually attacked Bogdan’s weak serve.
The Romanian was broken in each of her first three service games and won a pitiful 42 percent of total points on her serve. In the second set, she handed Kerber an easy love break at 2-4, and though she then broke back, Kerber fittingly built a 0-40 lead on Bogdan’s final service game and secured the victory with a perfectly placed drop shot.
“I was playing good from the first ball,” Kerber said. “I find my rhythm, so I was just playing point by point and trying to play my game plan like I was thinking before the match, and it worked.”
Kerber’s reward is a clash with No. 18 seed Kiki Bertens, who had little trouble dispatching Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 6-4, 6-2. Bertens, who beat Kerber in the first round of the French Open two years ago, faced just two break points against the Belarussian, dominating the flow of the match with 10 aces and 24 winners.
