Bouchard & Raonic reach new heights at Roland Garros
Friday was another historic day at the French Open for Canadian tennis after Milos Raonic and Eugenie Bouchard both advanced to the fourth round at Roland Garros.
UPDATE: Three Canadians reach Roland Garros quarterfinals
Raonic rallies past Simon
The London 2012 Olympian featured in arguably the most entertaining match of the day against Frenchman Gilles Simon, who excited the home crowd by taking the first and third sets. Raonic bounced back each time before closing out the day, though with some difficulty.
With a chance to win the match in the fifth set serving at 5-4, Raonic was broken by Simon, but the eighth seeded Canadian fought back to win the next two games and end the three hours and 16 minutes encounter 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Bouchard bests Larsson
In women’s singles Bouchard beat Sweden’s Johanna Larsson in straight sets 7-5, 6-4. Like Raonic, this is a new milestone for Bouchard reaching the Round of 16 at Roland Garros for the first time.
Seeded 18th at the French Open, Bouchard has now won eight consecutive matches after entering Roland Garros on the back of her first WTA title in Germany.
Nestor seeing double
Canadian fortunes extended to mixed doubles on Friday, when Olympic champion Daniel Nestor with French partner Kristina Mladenovic won 7-6 (7-1), 6-4 over Chan Hao-ching and Maxim Mirnyi in the first round.
A day earlier Nestor advanced to the third round of men’s doubles with Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic. The pair beat Roberto Bautista and Igor Sijsling 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3.
Also on Tuesday in women’s doubles, Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and Polish partner Alicja Rosolska won their first round match 6-1, 6-3.
Photo via Roland Garros
