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Paris – Third round action kicks off on Friday in Paris, with several highly anticipated clashes. Here’s what we’ll be watching on Day 6.
See the full order of play here
American men in the mix
The sixth career meeting between Frances Tiafoe and Sebastian Korda is one of several big matches for Team USA on Friday (Fourth on Lenglen). The pair have split their six meetings, but Korda has taken the last three, including a 6-4 6-4 victory in last year’s Citi Open semis that probably still stings Tiafoe, because it was on his home turf.
Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul will also be in action in what is a wide open lower half of the draw.
Other than Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune and Lorenzo Musetti are the only other top 10 seeds remaining, but those two talents will meet in the round of 16 if the seeds hold. That means we will see one of the following players reach the quarters: Tiafoe, Korda, Hamad Medjedovic or Daniel Altmaier.
Alcaraz will face Bosnia's Damir Dzumhur in the third round, in tomorrow's night session on Chatrier.
Mboko Rising
We watched Canada’s Victoria Mboko calmly navigate her way through qualifying without dropping a set and were duly impressed. What a strong, professional game style the 18-year-old possesses. In the main draw she still hasn’t dropped a set, after earning wins over Lulu Sun and Eva Lys. Now the rising world No.120 will face No.8-seeded Zheng Qinwen in the third round, first up on Court Simonne-Mathieu.
Mboko is the first player to reach a Women’s Singles Grand Slam third round without a set dropped en route including the Qualifying draw since Emma Raducanu at the US Open 2021. She has only faced one Top-10 player to date – she took a set off of Coco Gauff in Rome.
Big time showdowns on the women’s side
We are absolutely drooling over two third-rounders on the women’s side:
Jelena Ostapenko vs Elena Rybakina, with the winner likely facing Iga Swiatek in the round of 16, and Clara Tauson vs Amanda Anisimova.
Rybakina leads the head-to-head with Ostapenko 3-2, and has claimed their last three tilts. They'll be third up on Lenglen.
23-year-old Anisimova and 22-year-old Tauson have never met. They will get acquainted on Court 14 at 11 AM local time.
Four of the heaviest hitters in the women’s game, two scintillating matchups. What’s not to like?