Roland-Garros wrap - Fri May 30

Around the grounds at the Porte D'Auteuil venue as third round singles matches begin

Zheng Qinwen, Roland-Garros 2025, third round©Julien Crosnier / FFT
 - Lee Goodall

While we’ve seen a handful of big names bundled out of the men’s singles during the opening week, the higher ranked players in the women’s draw have enjoyed a calmer passage towards the last 16.

In fact, depending on results on Saturday, there is still the possibility that all top eight women's seeds reach the fourth round for the first time in Paris since 2003.

World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, No.4 seed Jasmine Paolini, fifth seed and defending champion Iga Swiatek and eighth-seeded Olympic gold medallist Zheng Qinwen (pictured above) all kept their side of the bargain on Day 6 with wins in the third round.

Over to the names within the top eight seedings in the opposite half of the draw then on Day 7 - can Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Mirra Andreeva and Madison Keys join them in the fourth round on Saturday?

Defending champion Swiatek improved her win-loss record at Roland-Garros to a staggering 38-2 when she beat Jaqueline Cristian 6-2, 7-5 on a boiling hot day on Friday.

Perhaps it wasn’t the most straightforward second set but it allowed the four-time champion to stretch her win streak in Paris to 24 matches. She is still on track for a fourth successive singles title.

On paper, Sabalenka’s third round match looked like a test, but she dealt with Serb lefty Olga Danilovic impressively to go through 6-2, 6-3.

Zheng continues to look strong and had too much game for the 18-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko during a 6-3, 6-4 win early in the day.

And last year’s runner-up Paolini stayed on track for another deep run by beating Ukrainian lucky loser Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-4, 6-1 in just over an hour.

One of the other standout results belonged to last week’s Strasbourg champion Elena Rybakina who hammered Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-2 to set up a meeting with Swiatek.

There was drama in the men’s draw at either end of the day. Initially it was provided by Holger Rune as he recovered to beat Frenchman Quentin Halys 6-2 in the fifth despite being two points from defeat when he served at 4-5 in the fourth set. The match included the shot of the week so far from Rune.

In the night session defending champion Carlos Alcaraz looked like he would make smooth progress when he took the first two sets off world No.69 Damir Dzumhur before the Bosnian stole the third and led 3-1 in the fourth to make it a complicated evening for the Spaniard.

Alcaraz steadied himself just in time, however, to scramble through in four sets without playing his best tennis.

The American men are having a good tournament and a group of three players - Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton - are all into the last 16. Tiafoe made sure of his passage with a solid 7-6(6) 6-3, 6-4 win over fellow-American Sebastian Korda.

Young qualifier Ethan Quinn could make it a quartet of Americans in the fourth round if he can beat Tallon Griekspoor on Saturday and Alex Sharp got to know the right-hander before his tilt at the Dutchman on Day 7.

RG writer Dan Imhoff was another tracking down players in the media centre when he met the talk of Portuguese tennis this week - Henrique Rocha - before the 21-year-old plays his third round match against Alexander Bublik on Saturday.

Chris Oddo meanwhile interviewed Hailey Baptiste to find out more about a support team that includes Frances Tiafoe’s older brother Franklin that’s been helping her put together a best run yet on the European clay. She takes on Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro on Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday, as ever, Alix Ramsay has put together the perfect guide to the pick of the singles matches.

We look forward to your company for the start of play from 11am Paris time.