The fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) qualified for the second round of the French Open / Roland Garros tennis championship after a victory over Greet Minnen (Belgium) by 2-0 (6:2, 6:3)
The Kazakhstani tennis player, who has been struggling with a viral illness in recent days, fell behind 0:2 game at the very beginning of the match, but with a great service game and constant powerful attacks, she quickly managed to break the resistance of her opponent.
In the second set, Elena Rybakina led the game 4:0, and although she allowed Greet Minnen to return one of the breaks behind, there was no turnover.
The next opponent of the fourth-seeded will be Arantxa Rus (Netherlands), who eliminated the former world’s number one Angelique Kerber (Germany) after 2-0 (6:4, 6:3).
Elena Rybakina, who missed Roland Garros last year due to an injury, is the only tennis player this season who has managed to beat tournament favorite and three-time Paris champion Iga Swiatek (poland) on clay. This happened in April in Stuttgart.
Meanwhile, the 7th-seeded Qinwen Zheng (China) defeated wild card Alize Cornet (France) by 2-0 (6:1, 6:2) in an hour and 24 minutes of play.
For the 34-year-old Alize Cornet, this was the last match in her singles career. In April, she announced that she would say goodbye to the public at Roland Garros. The Frenchwoman has played at the French Open in each of the last 20 seasons, reaching the fourth round in 2015 and 2017.
Her biggest Grand Slam success came in 2022, when she reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
In the next round, Qinwen Zheng will face either Tamara Korpatsch (Germany), who defeated Ashlyn Krueger (USA) by 2-1 (4:6, 6:4, 7:6).
The rain seriously hampered the schedule at the Roland Garros tournament with many matches being delayed during the day.
