Paris: Outside the Parc des Princes, home to the victorious Paris St-Germain side, is a banner that says ‘Ici c’est Paris’ this is Paris.
It certainly felt that way these last 24-hours when some 50,000 fans made their way to Boulogne-Billancourt to watch on giant screens their beloved side battle for the Champions League title some 900 kms away in Munich. The mood carried through from Saturday night, as a city, rejoicing their thumping 5-0 verdict, awaited their team to make its way home, following a victory parade at the iconic Champs-Elysees.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! About 500 metres from Paris St-Germain’s 48000 seater stadium, is the stunning setting of Roland Garros – red clay, with picturesque show courts, including one Court Simonne-Mathieu which is surrounded by greenhouses displaying botanical collections – it is where the tennis tours convene for the second major of the year, the French Open which is at the half-way mark. The points are getting longer and the matches more intense.
Yet, from across the road, the chants of spectators cheering their victorious team echoes across in the full-house of Court Philip Chatrier, where play begins at ‘quiet please, players are ready’. S’il vous plait.
As sporting stories go, Roland Garros held its own in individual contests on Sunday, with a pair of stirring comeback wins scripted by Iga Swiatek, the four-time champion, and the No.13 seed Elina Svitolina. The Ukrainian battled back from 4-6, 1-4 against the fourth-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini, saving three match points to score a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1 win in two-hours and 24-minutes.
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka survived A scare in the first set before battling past 16th-seed Amanda Anisimova 7-5, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.
Paolini, 29, who produced a statement season last year, making successive major finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, had two match points in the tenth game and then another in the tie-break, as the 30-year-old mother of a two-year-old took it to her opponent.
“I tried to stick to my game plan, stayed in the match, kept fighting, kept doing aggressive things on the court, to find opportunities to get back in the match,” said Svitolina, whose daughter Skai will be three in October. “Jasmine played really well in the first set, second set as well. We were really close. I knew that I had to try to give myself a chance to come back into the match and just leave it all there.”
In the quarterfinals on Tuesday, Svitolina will go up against the 24-year-old Swiatek, who authored a dramatic comeback against Elena Rybakina.
The Pole said in the 35-minute opening set, where the Kazakh dropped just two points on her first serve, she felt like she was playing world No.1 Jannik Sinner. Swiatek, who trailed by a set and was down 0-2 in the second, made some tactical changes to her play, stepping back on Rybakina’s serve. That gave the 24-year-old a couple of extra seconds, helping her work her way back to claim a 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 win.
Rohan Bopanna, Yuki Bhambri knocked out
Rohan Bopanna and Czech Adam Pavlasek bowed out of the French Open men’s doubles third round on Sunday, falling 2-6, 6-7 (5) in 71-minutes to Finland’s Harri Helliovaara and Briton’s Henry Patten. Bopanna and Pavlasek, who fought back in the second set, nudged ahead on serve in the tiebreak to 5-4, but Helliovaara and Patten sealed a mini break on match point. Bopanna, who made the semi-finals here last year with Aussie Matthew Ebden, will see a dip in his rankings.
He’s at No. 51 in the live rankings. Meanwhile, the pairing of Yuki Bhambri and Robert Galloway went down 4-6, 4-6 to the ninth seeded Americans Christian Harrison and Evan King in 77-minutes.
Manas Dhamne falls
India’s Manas Dhamne bowed out of the junior boys singles at Roland Garros, falling 5-7, 3-6 to Indian-American Ronit Karki in the first round on Sunday. Manas, 17, led 4-1, 30-0 in the first set, but saw his opponent wade right in, winning six of the next seven games to seal the set.
The 1-hour 41-minute match was a high-quality affair, but the American displayed greater consistency and was sharper in working his way around the court. While both players pushed 190 kmph on their first serves, it was Manas who had greater purchase with pace, but Ronit, strong on the return, created a dozen breakpoint opportunities.
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