On Thursday, May 30 at Roland Garros, the second round matches continued, many of which were postponed compared to the previous day due to rain. The first Russians to compete for access to the third round were Anastasia Potapova and Lyudmila Samsonova.
Potapova (racket number 41 in the world) took the starting start on court number 2, where she played with the representative of Switzerland Victoria Golubic (76); This was the third meet for the girls. Previously, the tennis players faced each other in the Cluj-Napoca tournament in 2022 and in the qualification for the competition in Brisbane in 2020. On both occasions the victory went to the Russians.
In the first round of the current Roland Garros, Golubic sensationally beat the 24th seed of the tournament, Barbora Krejcikova, 7:6, 6:4, and Potapova beat her compatriot Kamilla Rakhimova 6:2, 6:3 . This season in Paris, the Russian will have to defend 130 points from last year’s third round.
Today, at the beginning of the match, not everything went well for Potapova, but already in the second game she recovered, served well, made a break and in just 11 minutes she was leading with a score of 3:1. Anastasia played great and powerful on both her serve and return. Sometimes she was in a hurry and made unforced errors, but even on those plays Golubic had to play exclusively defense.
The Swiss played a little more actively in the sixth game, and the Russian had problems on serve and had to recover a break point. However, this became the only difficulty for Potapova in the set. In just 29 minutes, Anastasia took the first match 6-2. In terms of statistics, the Russian surpassed her rival in almost every aspect: she won more points (29 vs. 18), points on the first serve (92% vs. 62%) and on the second (57% vs. 40%).
At the beginning of the second game, Golubic began to show more resistance and Potapova became nervous. Once again, like in the first set, the Russian had to take advantage of break points, but she managed it. Then, in the fifth game, Anastasia herself took the opponent’s serve away from her. And then another. The Swiss tennis player, who showed herself so well at the beginning of the match, completely collapsed in her game.
Anastasia Potapova
Photo: Getty Images
With the score 5:2, Potapova was supposed to serve for the match, but rain interfered with the game. Staff quickly covered the court and the tennis players were sent to a room below the stands. This angered the Russian woman.
The girls returned to the court after 50 minutes. Potapova did not delay this match and entered the match on the first attempt. 6-2, 6-2, Anastasia wins and advances to the third round. There she will wait for the winner of the match between Xinyu Wang and Victoria Tomova.
The next Russian on court number 6 was Lyudmila Samsonova (17); In the second round she fought with former American top 25 tennis player Amanda Anisimova (231). This was the athletes’ third meeting. Their previous matches took place at the start of the 2024 Australian Open and in Adelaide a year earlier. The American took both matches in two sets.
Today Samsonova and Anisimova only managed to play two matches. With the score 1:1, Paris was once again in the rain and the girls went up to the stands.
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Before today’s rain, only seven games had been completed on outdoor courts. Playing were Grigor Dimitrov and Fabian Marozhan (Bulgarian victory 6-0, 6-3, 6-4), Matteo Arnaldi and Alexander Muller (Italian victory 6-4, 6-1, 6-3), Paula Badosa and Yulia Putintseva (victory Spanish 4:6, 6:1, 7:5), Dayana Yastremska and Wang Yafan (Ukrainian victory 6:2, 6:0), Donna Vekic and Marta Kostyuk (Croatian victory 7:5, 6:4), Sebastian Korda and Kwon Sun Woo (American victory 6:4, 6:4, 1:6, 6:3).
The forecast for today is not encouraging. But there is still a chance that the rain will periodically stop and the players will return to the field. The matches continue without interruption only on two covered courts: the Philippe Chatrier and the Suzanne Lenglen. There, Arina Sabalenka and Moyuka Uchizhima (Belarusian victory 6:2, 6:2), Daniil Medvedev and Miomir Kecmanovic (Russian victory 6:1, 5:0 after the Serbian’s refusal) already completed the second round matches there, as well as like Elena Rybakina and Arancha Rus (victory of the representative of Kazakhstan 6:3, 6:4).
The day continues on the slopes of Philippe Chatrier and Suzanne Lenglen. Currently meeting Elina Svitolina and Diane Parry, as well as Alexander Zverev and David Goffin.
