De Minaur, Kokkinakis keep Australia’s French Open hopes alive
The top-ranked Australian tennis player, Alex de Minaur, is still alive at the 2024 French Open, navigating a challenging day five where five men’s seeds lost.
De Minaur defeated Jaume Munar in the second round of Roland-Garros on Thursday. It was a routine 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 win, his second straight-sets victory after seeing off Alex Michelsen 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 in the first round.
Next up, the 25-year-old faces a challenging opponent in world No.41 Jan-Lennard Struff. The German has a history of making big runs on clay, reaching the Madrid Masters final in 2023 and winning the Munich 250 in April this year.
Thanasi Kokkinakis keeps de Minaur company as the only other Australian in the third round of the French Open. He earns his spot courtesy of back-to-back five set wins this week — the first time he’s done so in his career.
Upsets abound in men’s draw on day five
De Minaur and Kokkinakis did well to survive day five in Paris, as plenty of big names in the men’s draw didn’t.
Karen Khachanov (18), Mariano Navone (31), Frances Tiafoe (25), Alexander Bublik (19) and Sebastian Baez (20) all failed to navigate the second round of the French Open.
Two other title contenders escaped by the skin of their teeth.
Casper Ruud, who tennis bookmakers had at $11 pre-tournament to win the title, was embroiled in a difficult five-set match against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
The No.7 came back from a break down in the decider, winning 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 on Thursday evening.
Rune gets out of jail thanks to Federer
Holger Rune also used a get-out-of-jail-free card on day five, coming back from the brink against qualifier Flavio Cobolli.
Rune, a $41 outside chance with the bookies for the title this year, let a 2-0 set lead slip against the young Italian. With the crowd behind him, Cobolli won the third and fourth sets, then forced a match tiebreaker in the fifth.
The tournament’s biggest upset seemed on the cards when Cobolli raced ahead 5-1 in the breaker. However, Rune powered back into the contest, winning nine of the last 11 points to book his place in the third round.
After the match, Rune shared that he channelled his inner Roger Federer when he fell behind in the tiebreaker.
“I just switched my brain off a little bit and just tried to go for my shots,” the Dane revealed.
“All of a sudden, it came into my mind a match when Roger played Tennys Sandgren at the Australian Open when he won in five-set match tiebreak as well, and Sandgren had many chances.
“Roger is always very relaxed when he’s playing. I told myself, ‘OK, let’s try to relax’.
“Then I started to hit my shots better, more freedom, got back on track.”
Rune faces Jozef Kovalik next in the third round on Saturday in Paris.
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