By Shrivathsa Sridhar
PARIS, May 30 (Reuters) – Defending champion Coco Gauff was dramatically dethroned at the French Open by Anastasia Potapova, while world number one Aryna Sabalenka cut through the chaos to dismiss Daria Kasatkina and reach the Roland Garros fourth round on Saturday.
After a brutal two days for fancied players at the claycourt Grand Slam during which Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic crashed out, Gauff was unable to find her best level and lost 4-6 7-6(1) 6-4 to fall by the wayside.
“I don’t know, I had chances,” Gauff said.
“Just trying to capitalise more on these good points that I was hitting and not quite finishing … that was the difference, she was able to finish points and I wasn’t.
“It’s one thing to lose, but today I competed, I fought my hardest, but I don’t think I played the way I wanted to in the crucial moments.”
Gauff’s premature exit leaves four-times champion Iga Swiatek and Sabalenka as the top contenders to win the Suzanne Lenglen Cup, while Potapova will be viewed as the dark horse having dished out a massive upset.
“I’m cramping a little bit, but it’s OK, it’s all good. I don’t have any words now, I’m extremely happy,” Potapova said in her on-court interview as she clutched her right arm after two hours and 37 minutes of big hitting.
“The fight we could show … Coco’s such a champion and I respect her so much. I’m unbelievably proud of myself, that I stayed there, and that I was fighting until the last point.”
Sabalenka earlier beat Kasatkina 6-0 7-5 on a sun-drenched Court Suzanne Lenglen for her 100th win as the top-ranked woman, making her only the ninth player to achieve the feat since the inception of the WTA rankings.
She joined Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Chris Evert, Serena Williams, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Justine Henin and Swiatek in the honours list.
“I’ve got goosebumps,” said Sabalenka, who struggled with dips in form and crippling service issues a few years ago.
“It means the world to me and I’m just happy that in the tough moments I stayed tough. I was fighting and never gave up and that is what it has brought me.”
MARATHON BATTLES
Matteo Berrettini brought plenty of fight to his clash with Francisco Comesana, prevailing 7-6(3) 5-7 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(15-13) in five hours and 13 minutes, to book an encounter with Sinner-slayer Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
Cerundolo came through his own epic, with a 6-4 6-7(9) 7-6(4) 6-7(4) 7-6(10-8) win over Martin Landaluce in a match that was two minutes short of six hours. But his brother Francisco lost 6-3 6-4 3-6 4-6 6-3 to Zachary Svajda.
Alejandro Tabilo ended the run of French 17-year-old Moise Kouame 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6(11-9) in another long contest, but local fans had plenty of reason to celebrate as Diane Parry battled past sixth seed Amanda Anisimova 6-3 4-6 7-6(10-3).
Madison Keys showed far too much experience to see off 19-year-old Victoria Mboko 6-3 5-7 7-5.
Potapova rattled Keys’ compatriot Gauff with some powerful baseline hitting and broke to love in the opening game, before taking a 4-2 lead when the American slipped and dropped to the floor of Court Philippe Chatrier trying to reach the ball.
Gauff dusted herself off and won the next two games in front of a sparse centre court crowd, with the attention split between Paris St Germain’s Champions League soccer final with Arsenal in Budapest and Kouame in action.
The 22-year-old raised her game again to take the first set, but Russian-born Potapova immediately ramped up the pressure and targeted the American’s wobbly serve to grab a double break at the start of the second set.
Potapova was on the verge of levelling the match while ahead 5-2 but Gauff moved through the gears to surge ahead by claiming four games in a row, only to lose the next game and then the set in a tiebreak where her serve let her down.
The pair traded breaks in a breathless decider, but world number four Gauff lost her way as Potapova took control and won in style for a meeting with 22nd seed Anna Kalinskaya, who beat Camila Osorio 6-3 0-6 6-2.
Kalinskaya’s Russian compatriot Diana Shnaider went through with a 7-5 6-1 win over Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova, who criticised Russian players over their stance on Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Former world number one Naomi Osaka earlier dazzled with an all-gold outfit but had to dig deep for a hard-fought 7-6(5) 6-7(3) 6-4 victory over American teenager Iva Jovic.
Flavio Cobolli then sent out another young American with a 6-2 6-2 6-3 win over Learner Tien before Matteo Arnaldi got past Raphael Collignon 6-4 6-7(5) 5-7 6-4 7-6(10-4), as Italian fans found new hope after Sinner’s defeat.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Paris; Editing by Nia Williams and Christian Radnedge)
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