After a near miss in round two, Carlos Alcaraz will take on Monte-Carlo vanquisher Sebastian Korda for a spot in the round of 16. Briton Cam Norrie and Karen Khachanov will also be in Friday action at the French Open.
(6) Carlos Alcaraz vs. (27) Sebastian Korda
In the tastiest of the third-round matches on Friday’s docket, Spanish superstar Carlos Alcaraz will take on fellow NextGen finalist Sebastian Korda. It may give fans a birds-eye view into the future of men’s tennis. Alcaraz has been tearing up the circuit in 2022. He has only lost three matches total this year, but one of them came at the hands of Korda and it came a few weeks ago on the clay of Monte-Carlo.
Alcaraz teetered on very edge of elimination in the second round to veteran Albert Ramos-Vinolas. The teenager had to save a match point in the fourth set. It was far from the dominant performance the rankings would suggest and perhaps creates an opening for Korda to put a dent in the Alcaraz winning streak.
Korda, a good clay-court player in his own right, certainly wasn’t intimidated by Alcaraz in their last meeting. He held up under a pair of tiebreakers and closed it out 6-3 in the third. The American has played well this week, although he continues to have difficulty serving out matches when up a break. The issue popped up already this week. Korda has enough game to make a match of this, but if he permits the nerves to creep in then Alcaraz will take advantage.
Cheryl pick: Alcaraz in 5
Ricky pick: Alcaraz in 4
(10) Cameron Norrie vs. (21) Karen Khachanov
Friday will mark the sixth meeting between Cam Norrie and Karen Khachanov. This is a good opportunity for world No. 11 Norrie to work his way into the second week of a slam event for the first time. The third round is his previous best showing, but he is much better positioned in Paris.
Norrie comes into the event off his first-ever clay-court title just last week in Lyon. That might spell difficulties with fatigue later in the event, but so far the Brit has produced a pair of tidy straight-set wins over Manuel Guinard and Jason Kubler.
Norrie has won both of his previous matches on clay with Khachanov. The Russian is no clay-court specialist, but he holds his own on the dirt. He had a quarterfinal showing in Paris in 2019, although he crashed out in the second round in 2021. Khachanov’s European clay results have been largely lackluster this season except a semifinal showing in Belgrade.
Look for Norrie to Advance.
Cheryl pick: Norrie in 3
Ricky pick: Norrie in 4
Korda is playing some good tennis but I’m not sure if he will be able to close against Carlos given what happened with Rafa earlier this year when he was up 5:2 in third set and Rafa ended up winning the match!!
It has happened FAR more frequently than just against Rafa, though that was this year’s most egregious example. He has an issue with nerves and has since that horrific display against Khachanov at Wimbledon where he dropped serve something like 7 times (13 times total between the two of them in the fifth set).
Alcaraz isn’t going to let him off the hook like Millman did.
Alcaraz had his scare last round. If he didn’t I would give Korda a chance to make it a close match, but I see it 3-1 Alcaraz.
Cheryl u r very right, I recall the commies mentioning this nervous issue . Anyway, let’s hope he’s over that hump and fairs better this time around ( but not against Rafa though 😂🤣🤣🤣).
However the issue doesn’t only seem to be with Korda though, there have been so many choke jobs in this tourney it’s not even funny anymore!!
Not particularly high quality so far, I have to say.
I completely agree!!! Not on either end!!! Korda is too flat he needs to get his back into it!!
Disappointing performance by Korda!! Making WAY too many errors and not after a great return of serve not doing enough offensively! Carlos” serve is nit that great Korda should have broken already bcoz he had many chances!! Sigh! That’s a waste of my time!!
He looks a little slow today, actually. He’s usually quicker off the mark (Korda).
Such a dumb dropshot by Korda! Why hit a drop shot right at your opponent when he’s right there to get to it? You have to make your opponent run for the drop shot!
Korda is too eager to avoid hitting to Alcaraz’s FH and he’s always hitting CC to Alcaraz’s BH which is getting so predictable! He has to change the pattern a bit, if not Alcaraz will become so comfortable dictating play CC and DTL.
BP opportunities wasted by Korda, he could be leading in this set by now and instead he lost his own serve!
Lucky, I saw that DS u talk about and that’s when I knew all was lost! Now I have a new appreciation for the thinking that goes into the big 3”s games, especially Rafa!! Their tennis is not about muscle memory, they play smart and hence the reason they r the big 3!!! Korda is playing like he’s wrapped up in all kinds of cords at the moment!! Phfffff!
Pity about Cam.I picked him to win, both heart and head.
Then I read the predictions above, and I really looked for him to win but he didnt.
At least Carlito won, that made up for it 🙂