French Open: Auger-Aliassime overcomes Shelton to reach fourth round; De Minaur fights back to beat Struff after rain disruption

Paris: On another day disrupted by rain, Felix Auger-Aliassime produced one of his best performances of the season on Saturday in the men’s singles fourth round of the French Open, outplaying Ben Shelton of neighbouring United States at St Roland Garros on Saturday. Auger-Aliassime swept past Shelton 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 to set a fourth-round meeting with Carlos Alcaraz of Spain.

The match was suspended due to rain on Friday night, it was shifted to Court Suzanne-Lenglen with the Canadian resuming his clash under the roof on holding a 5-4 first-set lead. Auger-Aliassime quickly held to seal the opener before he outplayed Shelton in the second and third sets in the pair’s first Lexus ATP head-to-head meeting.

The 23-year-old Canadian struck 28 winners and took advantage of a below-par performance from Shelton, who hit 36 unforced errors according to Infosys Stats. With this one-hour, 52-minute win, Auger-Aliassime set a clash with Alcaraz. The Canadian leads the Spaniard 3-2 in the pair’s ATP head-to-head series, but Alcaraz has won their past two clashes.

By reaching the fourth round in the French capital, Auger-Aliassime matched his best result at Roland Garros (2022). Earlier this season the No. 18 player in the ATP Live Rankings enjoyed a run to the final on clay in Madrid.

On the outside courts, rain has suspended play. Jan-Lennard Struff leads Alex de Minaur 6-4, 4-6, 2-0. De Minaur, the 11th seed from Australia, returned to the court to launch a fine comeback and won the match 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a Round of 32 match played on Court 14.

Play resumed at the Frech Open after a four-hour, 30-minute rain delay. The action began on time at the clay-court major before play was suspended at 1:04 p.m. local time. It was resumed at 5:34 pm.

Medvedev overcomes Machas

As play resumed on Saturday, Daniil Medvedev resumed his search for a second Grand Slam title by reaching the fourth round. The fifth seed passed a tricky third-round test from Czech Tomas Machac, 7-6(4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 advancing to the next round after three hours and 24 minutes.

Played in an electrifying atmosphere under the roof on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, Medvedev led by two sets to love and a break. However, Machac refused to fade, soaring back to claim the third set before he continued to hang tough in the grueling baseline exchanges with Medvedev in the fourth set.

However, with the prospect of a fifth set looming, Medvedev stepped up his level and gained the decisive break in the 10th game of the fourth. Machac, who defeated Novak Djokovic in Geneva last week, missed a smash at 4-5, deuce, before he struck a backhand wide to gift Medvedev victory.

According to Infosys Stats, Medvedev struck 53 winners and committed 50 unforced errors to improve to 2-0 in the pair’s ATP head-to-head meeting. Medvedev was not at his fluid best against Machac — who also led by a break in the fourth set — but found enough consistency in the closing stages to triumph.

The 28-year-old’s best result in the French capital came in 2021, when he advanced to the quarter-finals, while his deepest run on clay so far in 2024 was in Madrid, where he lost in the last eight.

–IANS