American Hailey Baptiste overcame former French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in first-round play at Roland Garros on Sunday in Paris.
Baptiste, seeded 26th, saved two match points and outlasted Krejcikova 6-7 (7), 7-6 (6), 6-2 in two hours, 57 minutes.
Krejcikova, the 2021 French Open winner, has failed to advance past the second round since.
Baptiste, 16 spots higher in the world rankings than Krejcikova, acted like the favorite, showing poise during the critical second-set tiebreaker to battle back from two-point deficits on four occasions and save match point twice.
That set the stage for a dominant closeout in the third set, in which Baptiste won 15 of her 20 first-service points (75%). It continues a trend of success for Baptiste at the event, after she reached the fourth round a year ago.
“It was a very close first two sets,” Baptiste said. “… I just stayed tough. Saved a couple of match points in the second, and somehow got over the finish line.”
It was a theme of present vs. past on the day, with present prevailing in nearly every instance. Krejcikova’s fellow past Grand Slam winners — Emma Raducanu of Great Britain and Americans Sofia Kenin and Sloane Stephens –were each ousted by comparatively less accomplished players.
Czechia’s Sara Bejlek (No. 35 WTA) dumped Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open winner, 6-3, 6-2 in 83 minutes. Peyton Stearns also controlled play against 2020 Australian Open champion Kenin, winning 6-3, 6-3.
Argentina’s Solana Sierra surprisingly jumped all over 2021 U.S. Open winner Raducanu before closing her out, 6-0, 7-6 (4).
Among seeded players, the day was mostly devoid of upsets. No. 8 Mirra Andreeva of Russia handled France’s Fiona Ferro 6-3, 6-3, while 11th-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland took care of Austria’s Sinja Kraus 6-2, 6-3.
The lone upset came from Ukraine’s Daria Snigur, who snuck past No. 21 seed Clara Tauson of Denmark 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.
No. 15 seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine defeated Russia’s Oksana Selekhmeteva 6-2, 6-3. Czech 27th seed Marie Bouzkova topped Lucia Bronzetti of Italy 6-3, 6-1, and No. 32 seed Xinyu Wang of China beat Lilli Tagger of Austria, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
Later in the day, No. 18 Sorana Cirstea of Romania handled France’s Ksenia Efremova 6-3, 6-1.
Other winners included Caty McNally, Katie Volynets, Spain’s Marina Bassols, Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva, China’s Xiyu Wang, Poland’s Magda Linette, Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch, Poland’s Magdalena Frech (via retirement) and Great Britain’s Francesca Jones.
–Field Level Media
