It will be an all-Spanish affair when Roberto Bautista Agut and Pablo Carreno Busta battle for a spot in the second week at Roland Garros on Saturday. Third-round action also includes a showdown between Andrey Rublev and Kevin Anderson.
(10) Roberto Bautista Agut vs. (17) Pablo Carreno Busta
Bautista Agut and Carreno Busta will be squaring off for the fifth time in their careers at the main-tour level when they clash in round three of the French Open on Saturday. The head-to-head series is all tied up at 2-2, with Bautista Agut winning their only previous clay-court encounter at the 2017 Rome Masters via a 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-4 decision. They most recently collided earlier this season on the indoor hard courts of Rotterdam, where Carreno Busta prevailed 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(4).
Another great one should be in the cards, because both Spaniards are in outstanding form. Carreno Busta is coming off a semifinal showing at the U.S. Open, where he was the beneficiary of Novak Djokovic’s infamous fourth-round default. So far this fortnight he has taken out John Millman and Guido Pella without dropping a set. Bautista Agut is 18-6 for his 2020 campaign following straight-set defeats of Richard Gasquet and Attila Balazs. This could obviously go either way, but Bautista Agut has slightly more experience in Grand Slam thrillers–and this is almost sure to be one–and Carreno Busta may still be feeling the effects of a near-miss against Alexander Zverev in New York from two sets up.
Pick: Bautista Agut in 5
Kevin Anderson vs. (13) Andrey Rublev
As good as RBA and PCB have been, Rublev has been even better. The 12th-ranked Russian is 27-6 this season, which includes back-to-back titles in January (Doha and Adelaide), a quarterfinal performance at the U.S. Open, and another title last week in Hamburg. Rublev had to play just two days later and managed to come back from two sets down to beat Sam Querrey, after which he cruised past Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-5, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 in round two.
Next up for the 22-year-old is Anderson, who won their only previous meeting 7-6(1), 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-3 at the 2015 U.S. Open. Of course, that match hardly means anything now. Anderson’s career took off shortly thereafter with a pair of Grand Slam final appearances, but injury issues have since derailed him. The 34-year-old South African is ranked 118th due mostly to inactivity, but he has done well to defeat Laslo Djere and Dusan Lajovic so far this fortnight. Anderson needed five sets to get past Lajovic, which is not good news for someone whose physical status has been a big question mark of late. But even at 100 percent, the veteran would be hard-pressed to make this one competitive unless he serves incredibly well.
Pick: Rublev in 3
WWW?
RBA in 4; Rublev in 3
Tsitsipas is really finding his rhyhtm. Hope he wins his potential Rublev clash and gets to the semis.
U expect him to beat novak ?
Was just going to say the same vr!
His game is so fluid and flowing… He is the only one who can trouble Novak on that side of the draw.
I feel he will play better against a top player when there is no pressure on him.
Stefanos is potentially the next big icon in men’s tennis.
Eyecandy you mean ?:-)
You need more than eyecandy! Look at dimi..! I mean that maybe he will win a lot of tourneys when the big 3 retire. Plus he has charisma…
Both he n thiem have charisma..comparatively zverev n Medvedev are pale in comparison
But Dom is 27! He is getting on a bit in terms of becoming the next icon…
He can’t really be included among the young players..
The rublev clash will be interesting ..fuscovis can take out rublev though
agreed, fuscovis can beat him. Dimi vs Tsitsipas could also be interesting.
I agree about Tsitsipas’ fluid game. After Rafa, Tsitsipas is the player I will support.
Tsitsipas has grown up a bit and he’s such a beautiful young man now, yes he’s the eye candy of men’s tennis, the next poster boy after the big three retire.
I prefer Tsitsipas – looks and game – over Alex Zverev, even though Alex is also good looking and together with Tsitsipas, will be the poster boys of tennis in future.
Good that busta won..agut is lucky for novak…he troubles novak but whenever novak beats him..he wins the spam..eg french 16 n wimby 19 ..
Spam?!😀 I was waiting for you to come up with one of these strange auguries sanju! You always do at RG! Some of them are very creative!
I was thinking of inventing a fake example! Ie Novak always wins a tournament when a pigeon attacks Pascal Maria..!😀
Slam I mean…typo
The Djoko bakery seems to be open for business too.. triple bagel seems likely the way galan is listless
Well Galan, who is a lucky loser, is zero opposition. Travaglia played some really good tennis in the second set and has beaten some clay court specialists so there is no comparison in terms of the relative merits of their opponents.
Galan also has defeated good opponents like Sandgren and Noorie. Sandgren defeated Hurcacz who almost defeated Schwartzmann in Rome. I still feel Djokovic is not playing great but that makes me feel like what would be the scoreline if he plays his best tennis.
Same holds true for Nadal as well. He too is not playing great but still winning comfortably. Anyway both of them have faced weak opponents and it will continue for one more round.
Till now only Thiem has played against tough opponents and he has one of the toughest draw in a long time
I only saw bits of the match but I looked at the stats and Novak faced 5 break points and hit 27! unforced errors. These stats don’t seem to tally with the commentators gushing..
There is nothing wrong with the commentators gushing over Novak afterall he is the world number one and has not lost any completed match in this year. His unforced errors are high because he is simply playing lot many drop shots which half of the times land in his side and unnecessarily playing variety of shots which he would not do against a quality player.
This year there are 3 favourite players unlike past years. Somehow commentators are getting a feel like if Rafa and Novak meets then there is a slight edge goes to Novak based on this year’s performance. For me it’s 50-50 as clay favours Rafa and conditions favours Novak
Gushing/fawning , its another way of Nole bashing.
No it’s not! Stop.going around trying to pick/start fights! You are following me around the site commenting snidely on everything I say including wta! Just buzz off!
It’s you who has been doing endless silly Rafa and rafans bashing..
I really really mean it about wanting you to leave me alone! I have had enough.
I’ve better things to do with my time but that’s OK,Amy.
I’ll try to keep it balanced tennis discussion from now on and hopefully you do the same.