Nadal, Gaston, Bouchard: 5 reasons to follow Roland-Garros this Friday

The 6th day.

At Roland Garros, the sun was in the game, this Thursday, to the delight of the actors and the (rare) spectators.

Before a copious program, this Friday.

To be continued.

For Hugo Gaston.

Last French in the running, Hugo Gaston (239th world, guest) has an appointment on the court Suzanne Lenglen with Stan Wawrinka (seed n ° 16), winner at Roland-Garros in 2015 (finalist in 2017) who made strong impression in his first two rounds (against Andy Murray, then Dominik Koepper).

At 20, the “small” (1.73 m) left-handed tricolor with the puzzling touch of the ball will have to resist the power and the regularity of the Swiss massif.

On the French side, Caroline Garcia will also be in the running.

Hanging on the 1st round (by the Estonian Anett Kontaveit), upset in the 2nd and hit to one knee by the Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich, the Lyonnaise is ready for the 3rd round.

Between doubts and hopes.

In front of her, on the Philippe Chatrier court, the Belgian Elise Mertens (n ​​° 16, semi-finalist of the 2018 Australian Open).

The Frenchwoman won the two meetings (on hard) having opposed her to the Belgian. 

For Marco Cecchinato.

The Italian (110th in the world) had lived a dream tournament in 2018 by reaching the semi-finals of the French Open after eliminating Novak Djokovic (72nd in the world, he was then the lowest ranked player to reach the last square since Andrei Medvedev in 1999).

A performance followed by a title in Buenos Aires which allowed him to enter the Top 20. Before returning to rank.

In front of him will stand Alexander Zverev (n ° 6) shaken by Pierre-Hughes Herbert during the second round.

The German leads 1-0 in their confrontation.

For Sebastian Korda.

He is one of the sons of ... famous.

Emilio Gomez (son of Andres, winner at Roland-Garros in 1990), resulting from the qualifications was eliminated in the first round by the Italian Lorenzo Sonego.

Sebastian Korda, son of Petr (winner of the Australian Open in 1998), 213th in the world, American coached by his father will, after victories against the Italian Andreas Seppi, then the American John Isner, face a another player from the qualifications, the Spaniard Pedro Martinez.

For the Thiem-Nadal distance match.

They have an appointment in the semi-finals.

They move quickly and gauge each other.

From a distance.

Dominic Thiem (the Austrian will pass a test against the Norwegian Casper Ruud, n ° 28) and Rafael Nadal (will stand against the Italian Stefano Travaglia) will live, a few hours apart on the court Philippe Chatrier (the Austrian opening, the Spaniard closing) a new episode of their parallel tournament.

For Eugenie Bouchard.

At 26, the Canadian (168th in the world) remains a curiosity.

Along with Milos Raonic, she was one of the symbols of a booming Canadian tennis.

A source of inspiration, she is now overwhelmed by the phenomena of Bianca Andreescu, Denis Shapovalov and Félix Auger-Aliassime.

Invited this year, she surprised by overcoming obstacles (the Russian Anna Kalinskaya, then the Australian Daria Gavrilova).

She, who had not left qualifying in Melbourne, has just experienced a final in Istanbul and is moving forward.

To revive.

She who, in 2014, was semi-finalist of the Australian Open, Roland Garros and finalist of Wimbledon ...

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