French Open Day 4: Alexander Zverev survives test of nerve, 'Road-trip Marco' runs out of gas

Alexander Zverev eventually controlled his nerves to reach the French Open third round with a 2-6 7-5 4-6 6-1 6-2 win over Serbian Dusan Lajovic on Wednesday. The second-seeded German smashed a racket in frustration before finding his groove and setting up a meeting with 26th- seeded Bosnian Damir Dzumhur.

Zverev has yet to reach the last eight at a Grand Slam but his huge talent told in the end against the world number 60.

The 21-year-old Zverev had to cope with the frustration of an error-riddled start of the match.
He dropped serve twice in the opening set as Lajovic kept his cool and held serve to take the lead on Court One.

Lajovic toyed with the German, who lost his temper when he was broken in the third game of the second set and crushed his racket in frustration.

Horrible unforced errors and ill-timed rushes to the net followed as Zverev struggled for control but he broke back for 3-3 and regained his composure to convert his first set point on Lajovic's serve to level the match.

There were more jitters, though, as he trailed 2-1 in the third when he dropped serve on a double fault. Lajovic went on to bag the set and Zverev had his back to the wall.
But the German, who leads the ATP Race, was fully focused as he raced through the fourth set by sticking closer to the baseline and he ended the match with an unreturnable serve.

Djokovic, Dimitrov, Nishikori scrape through 

Novak Djokovic's target practice often failed to hit the bullseye but that did not prevent the Serbian eking out a 7-6(1) 6-4 6-4 second round win over Spanish qualifier Jaume Munar at the French Open on Wednesday.

The Serb started off by serving a fault, ended the opening game with a double fault and fired plenty of wayward shots wide and long as he tried to subdue the 155th-ranked Munar.

While it was obvious his game is still a long way from the form he produced to win four slams on the trot from 2015 to 2016, his surgically repaired elbow got a workout before he set up a third-round clash with Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut.

Fiery Benoit Paire gave Kei Nishikori some nervous moments but the 19th seed won  6-3 2-6 4-6 6-2 6-3 to moved ahed. 

Grigor Dimitrov's struggle to master the dirt was evident again in a four-hour dogfight with Jared Donaldson in the French Open second round on Wednesday. Dimitrov could never tame the 57th-ranked American youngster but he eventually prevailed 6-7(2) 6-4 4-6 6-4 10-8 to collect the 50th Grand Slam win of his career.

Wozniacki romps into round three

Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki was done with hanging around on Wednesday as she walloped Georgina Garcia Perez 6-1 6-0 in double quick time on Wednesday to reach the French Open third round.

With the first three matches scheduled on Court Philippe Chatrier on day four of the claycout major all going the distance - and lasting a combined eight hours 46 minutes - Wozniacki did not even make it into the arena till shortly before 7pm local time.

Fifty one minutes later the Danish second seed was offering Spain's Garcia Perez a consolation handshake after she secured a round three meeting with the winner of the all-French tussle between Alize Cornet and Pauline Parmentier.

Svitolina canters into third round 

Elina Svitolina saw off Roland Garros debutante Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia 6-3 6-4 to reach the third round of the French Open on Wednesday. The Ukrainian fourth seed, coming off a successful defense of her title in Rome, played solid tennis throughout to set up a meeting with Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu.

Marco's run ends

Marco Trungelliti's Roland Garros adventure came to an end on Wednesday, when the Argentine who made an 11th-hour, 1,000km hire car dash with his 88-year-old granny to reach the tournament on time, finally ran out of gas. Trungelliti, who drove from Barcelona with his grandmother, mother and younger brother to sign in as a Lucky Loser to claim a place in the main draw, was beaten 6-1 7-6(1) 6-1 by Italian Marco Cecchinato.

Halep moves ahead 

Top seed Simona Halep reached the second round a day later than expected and not without a fright as she recovered from a slow start to beat American Alison Riske 2-6 6-1 6-1 on Wednesday. The Romanian world number one stayed under wraps until the fourth day of the tournament after her opening match was canceled on Tuesday evening because of a schedule backlog.

Japan's Naomi Osaka scooted into the French Open third round on Wednesday with a quick-fire 6-4 7-5 win.