Lucic-Baroni does the double over Halep

Federer cruises; Bopanna-Mergea and Paes-Nestor advance

May 27, 2015 10:16 pm | Updated 11:59 pm IST - PARIS

Romanian Simona Halep became the highest seeded player to exit the French Open so far as last year’s runner-up lost 7-5, 6-1 to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round on Wednesday.

The third-seeded Halep, who reached her first major final at Roland Garros in 2014, struggled from the start on Court Suzanne Lenglen and was overpowered in the second set, slumping to her second straight defeat against her 70th-ranked opponent.

The Croatian had also beaten Halep at the U.S Open last year.

Lucic-Baroni hit an ace on match point and raised both arms in delight. She finished with 29 winners, compared to five for Halep.

“It’s incredible, she’s just a great champion and I respect her so much,” Lucic-Baroni said. “It’s such a huge win.”

Up next for the Croatian is local favorite Alize Cornet. “I wish at least three French people will cheer for me in that match,” Lucic-Baroni said.

Earlier, defending champion Maria Sharapova limited her mistakes to just eight unforced errors as she beat Russian Fed Cup teammate Vitalia Diatchenko 6-3, 6-1. She will now get an early test in her bid for a third French Open title, having set up a third-round match against 2010 French Open finalist Samantha Stosur. The Australian swept to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over French wild card entry Amandine Hesse.

The rout extended Stosur’s winning streak to seven matches after she arrived in Paris on the back of her first title this year in Strasbourg.

In men’s play, second-seeded Roger Federer made light work of Marcel Granollers, winning 6-2, 7-6(1), 6-3, while 2014 Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka reached the third round with a 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 defeat of Dusan Lajovic. No. 5 Kei Nishikori and No. 12 Giilles Simon advanced in straight sets.

Federer got the job done in one hour, 47 minutes, although he was broken twice and his opponent made life tough in the second set in particular.

The 2009 champion eventually came through a tiebreak before running away with the third set and will now meet Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia, who knocked out experienced Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis for a spot in the last 16.

“Playing Maria is always a big challenge for me,” Stosur said. “No matter what surface it’s on, I don’t have a very good record at all.”

The 26th-seeded Stosur has not beaten Sharapova since a match on hard court in Tokyo three years ago, with Sharapova boasting a 14-2 career record against the Australian veteran. But Stosur can take confidence from their previous match on the Parisian clay in the fourth round last year, when she led 6-3, 4-3 before Maria Sharapova won the next nine games.

“It’s one of those matches that’s a tough matchup, but I know I’ve got the game that can trouble her, and hopefully I can do it well and we will see what happens,” Stosur said.

Rohan Bopanna partnering Romanian Florin Mergea and Leander Paes along with Canadian Daniel Nestor advanced into the men’s doubles second round.

Bopanna-Mergea, who are seeded ninth, defeated Serbian duo Filip Krajinovic and Viktor Troicki 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round while Paes-Nestor, seeded tenth, beat Australian pair James Duckworth and Chris Guccione 6-2, 5-7, 7-5.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.