At Roland-Garros
“In recent months and years, there haven't really been any expectations for me.
This is something new. ”
Fiona Ferro will quickly have to get used to her new status at Porte d'Auteuil.
The 23-year-old Frenchwoman is, with Caroline Garcia, the other representative of the tricolor clan present in the second week at Roland-Garros.
On Saturday, on Philippe-Chatrier court, the 49th player in the world validated for the first time in her career her ticket for this stage of the competition in a Grand Slam tournament.
But it was necessary to scrap to rule out an extremely catchy Romanian, who did not finally let go until the third set, exhausted (7-6, 4-6, 6-0) after taking advantage of a the Frenchwoman at the end of the second set (eight points in a row) to pick up in one round everywhere.
The third and last act was only a formality for the protégé of Emmanuel Planque, the former coach of Lucas Pouille, against a player of her rank (59th in the world rankings), exceeded, then warned, and above all completely exit from his match.
"I'm happy to have made it out but it's only a step"
“I'm happy with my match which was difficult mentally and physically.
I had to work on every point and she didn't give me much.
I'm happy to have come out of it but it's only a stage, there is a match in two days, I'm going to prepare myself to do my best, ”said the very discreet native of Libramont-Chevigny ( Belgium) which remains on 18 consecutive victories!
Ten on the occasion of two titles in the Elite challenges organized by the Federation during the summer in Nice then in Cannes then five in Palermo, where she won.
And three, therefore, in Paris.
In 8th against the seed of the tournament Sofia Kenin
On Monday, the spotlight will however be once again on the athlete who prefers the shade to the light and on the beautiful poster opposing the seeded n ° 4, Sofia Kenin.
“She's a player I've never played, I just trained with her.
She has good timing, her ball goes well without forcing ”, briefly analyzed Ferro.
An XXL test looms against an American transformed into a steamroller against Romanian Barra this Saturday.
After trailing 0-2 early in the game, Kenin turned the tables and won twelve straight games to win 6-2, 6-0.
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