Saturday, May 30, 2015

French Open Day 6 recap: No. 8 Suarez Navarro falls

No. 28 seed Flavia Pennetta, defending her title
at Indian Wells in March, beat No. 8 Carla Suarez
Navarro on Friday. Photo by Paul Bauman
   Upset of the day -- No. 28 seed Flavia Pennetta, a 33-year-old Italian, dismissed No. 8 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-3, 6-4 in the third round.
   Pennetta had lost in the first round of her two previous tournaments, to 10th-ranked Andrea Petkovic in Madrid and then-No. 19 Elina Svitolina in Rome.
   Pennetta has never advanced past the fourth round of the French Open in 12 appearances.
   Match of the day -- No. 29 seed Alize Cornet of France reached the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time in 11 appearances, beating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. 
   The 25-year-old Cornet "celebrated as if she had won the tournament, falling onto her back, letting out a scream and then bursting into tears," the Associated Press reported.
   Notable -- No. 2 seed and defending champion Maria Sharapova ended No. 26 Samantha Stosur's winning streak at seven matches with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. Stosur, the 2010 runner-up to Francesca Schiavone, had lost only five games in two matches in Paris.
   Top-seeded Serena Williams is scheduled to face No. 27 Victoria Azarenka today in the third round. Williams saved three match points in a 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (1) victory over Azarenka in the third round at Madrid three weeks ago.
   Men's seeded winners -- No. 2 Roger Federer (2009 champion), No. 4 Tomas Berdych, No. 8 Stan Wawrinka, No. 12 Gilles Simon, No. 13 Gael Monfils, No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 20 Richard "Blow A" Gasquet.
   Men's seeded loser -- No. 21 Pablo "Jose" Cuevas.
   Women's seeded winners -- No. 2 Sharapova (2012 and 2014 champion), No. 7 Ana Ivanovic (2008 champion), No. 9 Ekaterina Makarova, No. 13 Lucie Safarova, No. 19 Svitolina, No. 21 Garbine Muguruza, No. 28 Pennetta, No. 29 Cornet.
   Women's seeded losers -- No. 8 Suarez Navarro, No. 11 Angelique Kerber, No. 20 Sabine Lisicki, No. 26 Stosur.
   Stars and stripes -- Steve Johnson lost to Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, leaving Jack Sock as the only U.S. man left in singles. Sock, 22, is set to play Borna Coric, 18, of Croatia today in the third round, with the winner likely to meet Rafael Nadal -- who has won nine French Open singles titles, including the last five -- in the round of 16.
   Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan and second-seeded Vasek Pospisil of Canada and Sock reached the third round of men's doubles. However, left-handers Austin Krajicek and Donald Young lost to ninth-seeded Rohan Bopanna of India and Florin Mergea of Romania 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.
   Fast facts -- Only four of the top eight women's seeds remain halfway through the third round: No. 1 Williams, No. 2 Sharapova, No. 4 Petra Kvitova and No. 7 Ivanovic. In contrast, all of the top nine men's seeds are still alive. 
   Northern California connection -- In addition to the Bryans, former Stanford stars, advancing in men's doubles, Abigail Spears and Scott Lipsky, another ex-Cardinal, won their first-round mixed doubles match. But fifth-seeded Bob Bryan and Caroline Garcia of France lost to Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., 3-6, 7-5 [10-8].
   Quote -- Cornet: "At last, I'm into the second week at Roland. I've been waiting for this for 11 years."

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