Day 6 saw the start of round 3 action. This French Open has been something else so far. The draws seem so open and every match it seems that anyone can win it be it if you outside the top 100 or inside the 10 in the rankings.

I will start with the ladies draw and in the bottom half which played on day 6, there were only 6 seeds left. After day 6 there are now only 3 seeds left in the bottom half of the ladies draw. Kasatkina started the day off and the 9th seed won her 3rd round match with ease against unseeded American, Stearns. Kasatkina dropping just 1 game in her win over Stearns. Her opponent was going to be the winner of Blinkova and Svitolina. Both players were in form coming into the match. Blinkova was coming off beating home favourite Garcia and Svitolina is on a run of wins after taking the title in Strasbourg the week before Roland Garros started. Blinkova began the match the better of the 2 players as she took the 1st set 6-2. Svitolina however just as she did in her previous match raced away in the second set. She led the set 5-0 before taking it 6-2 and this match headed into a 3rd set. The 3rd set was by far the tightest set with both players not being able to hold serve. Svitolina broke at 4-4 but Blinkova managed to break back to make it 5-5. Svitolina once again broke to lead 6-5. A long 12 game was played, Svitolina having to stave more break points before she eventually won a match point to book her spot in the 4th round. 28th seed Mertens played an impressive match as she dropped just 4 games against the 3rd seeded, American, Pegula. Her opponent in the 4th round is unseeded Pavlyuchenkova who for the 2nd match in a row came back from a set down. She defeated the 24th seed Potapova. 2nd seed, Sabalenka is staying strong in this bottom half as she cruised past Rakhimova in straight sets. Her next challenge is former grand slam winner, Stephens, who beat Putinseva in 3 sets. Avanesyan who knocked out Belinda Bencic in the 1st round continues her impressive run as she beat Tauson to reach the 4th round in a grand slam for the first time. Her opponent in the 4th round is Muchova who knocked out another seed, 27th seed, Begu in straight sets.

In the men’s draw we saw a good win from Khachanov who beat Kokkinakis in 4 sets. Sonego pulled off one of the best comebacks of his tennis career as he defeated 7th seed, Rublev in a 5 set match. Rublev took the first set 7-5 and then took the 2nd set 6-0 and looked to have the match covered. However Sonego found his mojo and took the next 3 sets to book his spot in the 4th round where he will face Khachanov. Ofner came through qualifying and now finds himself in the 4th round of the French Open after defeating Fognini in 5 sets. Varillas was up against 13th seed, Hurkacz, in the 3rd round. Both players had only played 5 set matches up until this points so I don’t think it is too surprising that these 2 played a 5 setter against each other. Varillas managing to beat Hurkacz and continue his dream run in this years French Open. Djokovic, Tsitsipas and Alcaraz all came through their matches in straight sets. Musetti also came through his in straight sets against 14th seed, Norrie.

Picks who lost on day 6:
Men: Davidovich Fokina, Hurkacz, Kokkinakis, Norrie, Schwartzman and Shapovalov
Ladies: Begu, Pegula and Potapova

Onto the Fantasy Leaderboard:
We have another change in the lead as for the 2nd day in a row the team placed in 3rd overnight moves up 2 spots and ends in 1st. ‘Royal Roland’ take top spot back and lead ‘Pat’s Pick’ by 3 points. ‘Pat’s Pick’ really making that 2nd spot their own. ‘Nandos’ is back into the top 3 as they move up 3 spots into 3rd. ‘Down the Line’ did not have a good day 6 which saw them drop down to 4th after leading yesterday. ‘Hawk Eye’ remains in 5th while ‘Rolanding on a River’ moves up a spot and into a prize position in 6th.
‘What the Deuce’ remain in the lead for the wooden spoon but the gap to ‘Serve with Eish’ is now just 4 points.

Matches to watch today:

• Nishioka(27) vs Seyboth Wild (Have just started the 5th set)
• Andreeva vs Gauff(6) (just started)
• Alexandrova(23) vs Haddad Maia(14) (14:30)
• Swiatek(1) vs Wang (15:00)
• Cerundolo(23) vs Fritz(9) (15:00)
• Altmaier vs Dimitrov(28) (16:40)
• Danilovic vs Jabeur(7) (17:05)
• Zverev(22) vs Tiafoe(12) (20:15)

Jared

Jared matriculated in 2020 from Wynberg Boys High School in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. His passion for tennis afforded him the opportunity of travelling to Europe. He is a quizmaster and a fantasy organiser.