By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday May 27, 2022
Day 7 will see the third round come to a conclusion at Roland-Garros, as the top half of the women’s draw and the bottom half of the men’s draw contest their third-round matches. Here’s what we’ll be watching on Saturday at Roland-Garros.
See the Roland-Garros Day 7 Order of Play Here
Iga, again?
Poland’s Iga Swiatek is the most dominant player on tennis at the moment, and the 20-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down. She has dropped just two sets in two rounds, and dropped two more bagels on her opponents to bring her season total to 15.
Swiatek faces 95th-raned Danka Kovinic on Saturday, and it’s hard to envisage the Montenegrin making many inroads.
Swiatek improved to 37-3 on the season with her 6-0, 6-2 win over Alison Riske. She has cracked 43 winners against 25 unforced errors, and converted 11 of 18 break points. Everything that can click, is clicking.
A young gun night sesh
Holger Rune will try to reach the round of 16 on his Roland-Garros debut, a feat that was accomplished two years ago by his opponent, Hugo Gaston. This year, the 21-year-old Frenchman will enjoy massive crowd support as he takes on the rising Dane in the night session on Chatrier.
The pair of unseeded players have yet to meet on tour. Rune has been a revelation on the clay in 2022, winning the title in Munich last month and rising up to No.40 in the world before Roland-Garos. Gaston has been a revelation in Paris. In addition to reaching the round of 16 in 2022, he also upset Carlos Alcaraz in Bercy last year en route to the quarterfinals at the Paris Masters.
Medvedev gets first big test on Lenglen
Daniil Medvedev has made a rapid recovery from his hernia surgery, returning to the tour last week in Geneva (loss to Richard Gasquet) before rocking up in Paris and claiming two victories to reach the third round.
The Russian jokes often about his lack of feel for the clay, but his results indicate otherwise, especially at Roland-Garros, at least of late. Medvedev lost his first four matches at Roland-Garros, but has since won six of seven. His run to the quarterfinals in 2021 was his coming out party.
If he plans to keep it rolling into week two he’ll have to take down a rough and ready Miomir Kecmanovic. The Serb has come into his own in 2022, earning - he has a 25-11 record and is perched at a career-high ranking of 31.
Kecmanovic has focused his efforts on clay this year. He has played 24 matches and won 16 of them.