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No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev continued on his mission for a second Grand Slam title, defeating Laslo Djere of Serbia 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday to reach the third round of the French Open.

Medvedev, of Russia, is still playing his way into form after missing most of the clay-court tuneups recovering from a hernia procedure. Still, Medvedev said he was pleased with the win at Roland Garros in Paris.

“Today I think to be honest, Laslo was playing the better clay-court tennis,” Medvedev said in an on-court interview. “But I managed to fight and just put one more ball in the court than him and it was a very tough match, but I am happy to win.”

In the next round, Medvedev will meet another Serb, 28th-seeded Miomir Kecmanovic, who has won a career-best 25 matches already this season. He defeated Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-1.

Medvedev reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros in 2021 and lost in straight sets to eventual runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas. He won the U.S. Open later in 2021.

Tsitsipas, the fourth seed, was pushed to the limits on Thursday by Czech Zdenek Kolar, the world’s No. 134-ranked player. Tsistipas scratched out a 6-3, 7-6 (8), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (7) win in four hours, nine minutes.

The marathon match boiled down to six points, with the Greek winning 167 points to 161 for Kolar. Tsitsipas fired 25 aces compared to nine for his opponent.

Next up in the third round for Tsitsipas will be Sweden’s Mikael Ymer, who defeated Brit Daniel Evans, the 29th seed, in four sets.

No. 7 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia moved on with his victory over Argentine Federico Delbonis, also in four sets. In the third round, he’ll meet Cristian Garin of Chile, who took out Ilya Ivashka in four sets.

Eighth seed Casper Ruud of Norway beat Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 but said it was a test.

“It was definitely a challenge,” Ruud said. “Even though it was three straight sets, there were some tough moments in the match, and some chances I didn’t get, but some chances I got. All in all, I’m very happy with the performance.”

Other seeded players to advance were 11th-seeded Jannik Sinner of Italy, 12th-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland and No. 20 Marin Cilic of Croatia.

No. 22 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia and American Frances Tiafoe, seeded 24th, were knocked out.

–Field Level Media