Kyle Edmund has forced a first-set tie-break against Paolo Cuevas. Edmund’s battling hard, but there’s a sense the Uruguayan still has the edge. What a boost it would be for Edmund to snatch this.
Naomi Osaka does well to save a break point and hold in the first game of the second set against Victoria Azarenka. I fancy this one to go to three sets.
Alexander Bublik, who chucked in an underhand serve earlier, is giving Dominic Thiem a few problems now. Having lost the first set, he’s a break up against the fourth seed in the second.
But the first set goes to Victoria Azarenka, who clenches her fist as she walks back to her chair. Solid serving was enough for the world No1 to clinch it 6-4, leaving Osaka with plenty to do to get back into this one. Elsewhere Ana Anismova turned it around against Aryna Sabalenka. The unseeded American fought back from a break down to take the first set 6-4, meaning the 11th seed is in a spot of bother on Court 1.
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Naomi Osaka is the player who never knows when she’s beaten. Serving for the opener at 5-2, Victoria Azarenka’s surprised when Osaka turns up at the heat and cancels out one of those breaks. Now Osaka’s threatening to make Azarenka really sweat.
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Kyle Edmund has broken back against Paolo Cuevas on Court 6. But the Uruguayan is pressing again on Edmund’s serve. This is a tough test for the British No1.
We have our first completed set of the day. Over on Chatrier Dominic Thiem is looking calm and composed against Alexander Bublik, taking the opener 6-3 against the Kazakh.
Naomi Osaka gets on the board. There’ll be no first-set bagel this time. But she still trails Azarenka by two breaks. Elsewhere the 11th seed, Aryna Sabalenka, is up a break against Ana Anismova.
Kyle Edmund is wobbling against Paolo Cuevas, who leads by an early break. Cuevas knows his way round the clay. Meanwhile Victoria Azarenka is bossing Naomi Osaka on Suzanne-Lenglen. She’s only gone and broken again, this time with a gorgeous backhand drop shot. Azarenka leads 3-0. Osaka lost the first set 6-0 against Schmiedlova on Tuesday. Might she be on the way to another bagel?
A fast start from Victoria Azarenka and a scratch one from Naomi Osaka, who drops her serve in the first game of the match, too many errors conspiring against her. Over on Chatrier, meanwhile, Dominic Thiem also has an early break against Alexander Bublik.
British No1 Kyle Edmund is also about to get going against Uruguay’s Paolo Cuevas, who’s a tricky proposition on clay. Cuevas has won 19 matches on clay since the Miami Open. This won’t be easy for Edmund, who halted a worrying losing streak when he beat Jeremy Chardy in the first round.
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Preamble
Hello. We begin with a doozy of a match on Suzanne-Lenglen today, with the current world No1 taking on the player who used to sit on the throne. Naomi Osaka might not be the queen of tennis just yet – not while Serena Williams, who faces Japan’s Kurumi Nara, later, is still around – but the wonderfully idiosyncratic Japanese youngster has already established herself as tennis royalty after her wins at the Australian Open and the US Open.
It’s rare to see grand slam triumphs backed up in the women’s game these days, but Osaka’s done it and she’s desperate to make it three in a row here. To keep that dream alive she’ll have to be at better than she was against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova on Tuesday. Osaka was in bits for long spells against Schmiedlova, who twice served for the match, and it remains to be seen how fit she is after a hand injury disrupted her preparations for the tournament. Victoria Azarenka, the two-time Australian Open champion, will be eager to find out.
That match is where the early focus lies, but there’s plenty of other stuff on to keep us occupied. Simona Halep, the defending women’s champion, is in action against Magda Linette later and in the men’s draw there’s Novak Djokovic against Henri Laaksonen, Dominic Thiem against Alexander Bublik, Juan Martin del Potro against Yoshihito Nishioka and Alexander Zverev against Mikael Ymer, a 20-year-old Swede who won his first ever match at a grand slam when he beat Blaz Rola on Tuesday.
It all begins at 10am BST and 11am in Paris.
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