Key events
So Volynets has only gone and bagelled Vondrousova in set one, and in fairness she’s been steadily improving the last couple of years. She made round two of this competition in 2022, then round three in Melbourne a year later, and at 22 is settling into her style. She’s doing really well to hang in long rallies – Vondrousova isn’t known for her power – and she’s going for winners whenever she can.
Elsewhere, Sonego leads Zhang 2-1, Korda and Lwon are 2-2. and Shelton, who’s hitting winners, leads Nishikori 3-2 on serve.
Gosh, Volynets is now 4-0 up on Vondrousova. I’m not certain how as there’s no commentary and I’ve mainly had eyes elsewhere, but I’ve just seen Volynets find a lovely angle at the end of a long rally – the kind of angle i’d expect her opponent to create.
Tsitsipas is hitting it hard on Lenglen, but it’s a drop that looks to have given him 0-30. But Altmaier does superbly to run around a lob that wasn’t quite clean enough, slamming a forehand winner cross, with his opponent stranded at the net. Tsitsipas, though, sticks at it, his returning right there, and when he raises two break points, a backhand into the tape means he only needs one. Altmaier 1-3 Tsitsipas.
Can Ben Shelton contend seriously for majors? We’ll need our resident coach calv Betton to rule on that one and one of his lads, Luke Johnson, is playing in the men’s doubles currently so we’ll need to wait on him. But I really like what I see, physically, technically and mentally – he believes. He leads Nishikori 1-0 on serve, while Volynets has broken Vondrousova – who I think is a serious threat here – in game one.
I’m also watching Ben Shelton (15) v Kei Nishikori and Katie Volynets v Marketa Vondrousova (5) – for now.
We’re tossing up on Lenglen and this should be a decent match – Altmaier beat Jannik Sinner in last year’s competition and at 25 is round about his peak, while Tsitsipas is improving with every match on clay.
Preamble
Salut tout le monde et bienvenue à Roland-Garros jour quatre!
And it’s another absolute rippeur. The highlight of our day should be Iga Swiatek v Naomi Osaka, but we’ve to wait for that one; no matter. Because between now and then, we have Daniel Almaier taking on the resurgent Stefanos Tsitsipas, Sofia Kenin meeting Caroline Garcia, Denis Shapovalov v Francis Tiafoe and Ben Shelton v Kei Nishikori.
Nor is that all – or anything close to it. We’ve also got Carlos Alcarax, Ons Jabeur v Camila Osorio, Andrey Rublev, Coco Gauff v Tamara Zidansek, Jelena Ostapenko, Marketa Vondrousuva, Felix Auger-Aliassime and yet more. On y va!
Play: 11am local, 10am BST
