Elena Rybakina Battles Through to French Open Round

Fourth seed Elena Rybakina overcame a sluggish start to defeat Arantxa Rus 6-3, 6-4 and advance to the third round of the French Open. Despite initial challenges, including an early double fault and being broken in the second set, Rybakina rallied to secure her victory.

Fourth seed Elena Rybakina made a sluggish start before beating Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus 6-3 6-4 on Thursday to move into the third round of the French Open.

Rybakina, a former Wimbledon champion, made an early double fault but held in the opening game under the roof on Court Suzanne Lenglen. The 24-year-old Kazakh seized control, firing three consecutive aces from 15-30 down for a 3-2 lead and sealed a break to take the opening set in 35 minutes.

"With a lefty I'm trying to cover the right sides of the court. In the end I'm also focusing on myself a lot and trying to push myself today with a little bit of ups and downs," Rybakina said. "A lot of games I was 0-40 down which I would say is not that usual for me. But she's an experienced player and it's not easy to play her."

There was little to separate the duo early in the second set before the lanky Rus took advantage of mistakes from her opponent to break for a 4-2 lead, only to surrender her serve in the next game. "No one wants to play three sets... so I was trying to focus point by point and push myself. Energy-wise I wasn't that happy today with myself," Rybakina added.

Having levelled up at 4-4, Russian-born Rybakina broke again to set up the chance to settle the match on serve and she completed in style to book a meeting with Petra Martic or Elise Mertens.