French Open 2017: Elina Svitolina and Agnieszka Radwanska advance
Thursday 1 June 2017 19:22, UK
Elina Svitolina and Agnieszka Radwanska both survived second-round scares at Roland Garros before advancing on Thursday.
Fifth-seed Svitolina lost her way in the first set as her heavy groundstrokes fell short or wide against Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova before serving up a rollercoaster 3-6 6-3 6-2 win.
Pironkova took advantage, reeling off four games in a row to take the first set.
But in a match littered with 54 unforced errors that the players shared almost equally, Svitolina then started to find her range and struck back.
She took the second set when her 77th-ranked opponent drove a backhand into the net, and did enough to stay on top in the third.
Next up for Svitolina, who has won four tournaments this year, including the title in Rome last month, will next face Magda Linette from Poland.
World No 94 Linetter will play in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time after beating 29th-seed Ana Konjuh 6-0 7-5.
Radwanska lived up to her nickname the 'Professor' as she dug deep into her toolbox of tactics to repel tenacious qualifier Alison van Uytvanck 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 6-3.
The world No 10 was taken by surprise in the first set when the aggressive Belgian, ranked 103 spots below her, went 3-1 up and squandered four break points to go 4-1 up.
Despite fighting back, Radwanska could not handle her opponent's big kicking serve and stream of drop shots as Van Uytvanck bagged the tiebreak with a smash.
Radwanska, the 2012 Wimbledon finalist, changed tactics by rushing to the net more, which helped her race through the second set 6-2.
The 23-year-old Van Uytvanck, who underwent wrist surgery in December and has made only one WTA main draw appearance this year prior to Roland Garros, was broken in the third game and Radwanksa never looked back, winning the match when her opponent dumped a backhand into the net after two hours and 23 minutes.
Simona Halep strolled through with a no-nonsense 6-4 6-3 victory against unheralded German Tatjana Maria while Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova reached the third round for the first time with a 6-2 4-6 6-3 win over Russian world No 86 Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Also, Daria Kasatkina, the 20-year-old Russian, beat 17-year-old qualifier Marketa Vondrousova 7-6 (7-1) 6-4, while Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei, who stunned British No 1 Johanna Konta in the first round earlier this week, defeated Taylor Townsend 6-0 2-6 6-3.
For those on the move, we will have the French Open from Roland Garros covered via our website skysports.com/tennis, our app for mobile devices and iPad, or follow our Twitter account @SkySportsTennis to join in the conversation. Can Elina Svitolina or Agnieszka Radwanska win the French Open? Have your say...
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