Lorenzo starts with a 6-1 against the Russian but can’t contain the comeback. For him also a problem with the right adductor
– PARIS
Three Sonego-style tennis sets: quality, struggle, even variations. Then – after the tie break lost in the third – the surrender, with the struggles of the comeback victory against Andrey Rublev which, combined with the awareness of having to reverse the situation once again, make the feat impossible. Lorenzo says goodbye to Roland Garros in the round of 16, as happened in 2020. Back then it was Diego Schwartzman who stopped the race of the tennis player from Turin, today it is Karen Khachanov: the Russian, hush hush, is for the third time in a row in a quarter of a Grand Slam final and will try, as he did at the US Open and Australian Open, to go all the way to the semifinal. He will find one between Djokovic and Varillas.
the third set
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Sonego is down two sets to one and can’t stay in the fight. He snorts, bends over on his legs. He arrives late and badly on the ball. Physical and mental energies fail, Khachanov gets the break in the second game of the fourth set and accelerates to 5-1, before closing with his serve. In any case, applause for Lorenzo, who beat you bravely: Shelton, Humbert, precisely Rublev. His remains a great Roland Garros. of Buenos Aires at the beginning of the season.
the epilogue
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Khachanov wins after losing the first set: the score is 1-6 6-4 7-6 6-1. The key, as mentioned, is the tie break of the third set, a watershed when there is an even set in a Grand Slam match. We get there with Karen increasingly confident in the match – after a first set dominated by Lorenzo – but unable to close the third set with the counterbreak immediately in the tenth game, at 5-4. The tie break seems to go to Sonego’s side, who brilliantly wins the first four points – the two won in return are beautiful, before an ace – before not finding the field in length with the forehand down the line, a shot that up to that moment had given so much to Gipo Arbino’s pupil. From 4-0 to 5-6: Khachanov finds himself at set point, canceled by Sonego with the first as Khachanov will do later on 7-6. Lorenzo’s double fault, on 7-8, delivers the partial to the Russian.
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