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No.6 seed Karolina Pliskova suffered a slow start but surged to a quick finish against former French Open finalist Lucie Safarova, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, to reach the third round. Pliskova, who has never lost to a fellow Czech at Grand Slam level,leads overall head-to-head 7-2, although they're tied on clay at 2-2.
Safarova captured the opening set in emphatic style, striking 14 winners but Pliskova battled back from the brink of a set and break deficit, breaking to love to level the match. Prior to last year’s run, Pliskova had never progressed beyond the second-round in Paris.
She surpassed 200 aces from 32 matches (excludes Fed Cup statistics), trailing only Goerges (214 from 29 matches) this season. The former world No.1 clinched her 12th win on clay this season (Fed Cup 1, Stuttgart 5, Madrid 4, Roland Garros 2), three more than she won in all of 2017.
The decider saw Pliskova ride that momentum all the way to the finish line, rolling out to a 3-0 lead and never looking back as she broke serve once more to secure victory after one hour and 44 minutes on Court 18. Two-time French Open finalist Simona Halep offered a comprehensive performance against American wildcard Taylor Townsend who reached the third round here on her Grand Slam main draw debut in 2014.
The reigning world No.1 6-3, 6-1 reached the third round at Roland Garros and won her 30th match of the season. Halep, who reached at least the quarter-finals in her last eight tournaments on clay, since losing to Rogers in the first-round at 2017 Australian Open, now has an 11-1 record against US players.
Playing for the second day in a row, Halep conquered the 15th win in 21 Grand Slam second-round matches with her most recent loss at this stage across the majors coming at 2015 Roland Garros (l. Lucic-Baroni). Up next for Halep is a rematch of her 2014 French Open semifinal clash with a resurgent Andrea Petkovic.
WTA World No.39 Lesia Tsurenko caused an upset by storming back from behind to defeat No.15 seed Coco Vadeweghe, 3-6 6-4 6-0. The World No.15 showed measured aggression in the opening set but Tsurenko battled for each game while Vandeweghe’s error count spiked.
Vandeweghe’s frustration cost her a point as she was penalised for ball abuse in the fourth game of the third set. Tsurenko will face No.19 seed Magdalena Rybarikova, who beat Belinda Bencic, 6-4, 6-2, in the third round.