Sloane Stephens advances to the fourth round, Svitolina falls
In early third round action on Saturday, both Sloane Stephens and Elina Svitolina were trying to advance to the fourth round at Roland Garros. For Stephens, she upset the 18th seed Karolina Muchova, taking the match 6-3, 7-5 in just under two hours, while the 5th seed Elina Svitolina fell to unseeded Barbora Krejcikova 3-6, 2-6 in less than an hour and 40 minutes.
For Sloane, she is back in the round of 16 for the third time in the last four years, with 2020 being the lone exception. For Svitolina, she now has lost in the third round at the French Open in three of the past four years, with a quarterfinals appearance at last year’s tournament.
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There was not a whole lot that separated Stephens and Muchova in the match, as although Stephens led the match in first serve points won, Muchova led in second serve points won. One of the reasons why Muchova did not win this match was because she was not successful when coming into the net. Muchova came in 28 times, which is a lot, yet only won 10 of those points, according to Infosys Match Centre.
Stephens was also a lot better on the big points, breaking Muchova at the right times in the match, and saving a bunch of break chances on her serve. Muchova had six looks at a break point in the match, but only converted twice, while Stephens had seven chances and broke four times. The one extra break in each set proved to be the difference, as Sloane took the match in straight sets.
Svitolina’s match was not as close, as Krejcikova was clearly the better player on Saturday. Krejcikova won 68% of the points on her first serve, which was 17% higher than Svitolina, according to Infosys Match Centre. Krejcikova was also a lot more successful at the net, winning the point 78% of the time when coming in, compared to 55% from Svitolina.
The return game was a lot better for Krejcikova than it was for Svitolina, as Krejcikova won 55% of the points on the return, leading to 17 break point opportunities. Svitolina would break Krejcikova twice in the match, but that was not enough to keep the match close, as Krejcikova would end up breaking six times on those 17 attempts to get a straightforward win in straight sets.
Sloane Stephens and Barbora Krejcikova are now set to face off against each other in the fourth round. This will be the first career meeting between the two, as Krejcikova will be trying to advance to the quarterfinals of a Major for the first time in her career.