It was billed as a popcorn match, and Petra Martic duly delivered a huge upset, dismissing Karolina Pliskova, the No.2 seed and champion of Rome, in straight sets on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Progress to a fourth-round meeting with either Kaia Kanepi or Veronika Kudermetova means the in-form No. 31 seed from Croatia equals her best Roland-Garros performance. This will be her third appearance in the last 16 in Paris.
Martic’s win over Pliskova marked her 14th tour-leading match-win on clay this season. Acknowledging her defeat of the No.2 seed ranks as a notable career win, she is determined to increase that tally.
“For sure, it was one of the bigger ones,” Martic said. “But I have bigger goals than that, and I hope I can just continue this way.”
It marked the second time the pair had met after Pliskova’s straight-sets result on her way to the Miami final in March. On the slower red clay in Paris, however, she admitted her power was nullified somewhat.
“Obviously she’s playing well this year, especially on clay,” Pliskova said. “She won titles so she’s playing confident. She was serving well. She just sometimes went for her shots and then she was patient.
“I think on clay it’s just too difficult always to just go for it. I don’t know. I think I just didn’t play that well. Maybe I was a little bit, at some points, passive, maybe not that fast. My serve wasn’t really working. I don’t think she did much wrong today, so I think she played clever. She was patient.”
In the battle between a teenager and a clay-court veteran, it was the 19-year-old Marketa Vondrousova whotriumphed in an hour and 29 minutes to beat No.28 seed Carla Suarez-Navarro.
Her 6-4, 6-4 victory on Court Simonne-Matthieu earned the Czech passage through to the last-16 where she will face No.12 seed Anastasija Sevastova from Latvia. In a 3hr, 18 min epic against No.20 seed Elise Mertens, the Latvian saved five match points and only needed one of the three she earned when serving out the match at 10-9 in the third set on Court Suzanne-Lenglen to reach the fourth round – her best performance at Roland-Garros.
Meanwhile, home favourite Lucas Pouille‘s battle with Slovak Martin Klizan, which was suspended overnight., resumed with Klizan two-sets-to-one up. Pouille managed to take the fourth to force a decider on Court Philippe-Chatrier, but the decider goes the way of Klizan after a total of 4hr, 7 minutes, 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 9-7. Au revoir, Lucas!
