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French Open roundup: Norrie dumped out, Djokovic and Alcaraz progress

French Open roundup: Norrie dumped out, Djokovic and Alcaraz progress
© Reuters
Cameron Norrie suffers another third-round exit at the French Open, but Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic both progress to the last 16.

Great Britain have no singles representatives left at the 2023 French Open as Cameron Norrie's run came to a swift end at the hands of Lorenzo Musetti in the third round.

The British number one was comfortably seen off in straight sets by a ruthless Musetti, who prevailed 6-1 6-2 6-4 in two hours and nine minutes to advance to the last 16.

With a total of 49 unforced errors on the day, Norrie was well and truly the architect of his own downfall, and he never recovered from losing the opening three games of the first set.

Norrie began to show a bit more fight in the second, but Musetti once again powered his way to the double break and won the first two games of the third set to inch ever closer to a fourth-round berth.

Norrie belatedly earned his first break of the match in the sixth game, but he squandered a further two chances to do so again, and Musetti took full advantage with a final three-game winning streak to progress to the last 16.

Carlos Alcaraz in action at the French Open on June 2, 2023© Reuters

The Italian's reward will be a showdown with number one seed Carlos Alcaraz, who survived a second-set scare to defeat Canada's Denis Shapovalov 6-1 6-4 6-2 in the night session.

Asserting his dominance early doors, Alcaraz raced into a 5-0 lead en route to a straightforward first-set triumph, but the Spaniard had his work cut out for him in the second set.

As Alcaraz's game dropped, Shapovalov capitalised to establish a 4-1 advantage with a pair of breaks, but the Canadian failed to grasp that golden opportunity with both hands as Alcaraz won another five games in succession to turn the tide in his favour.

A whopping 10 double faults did Shapovalov no favours on the day either, as he gave up his serve twice more in the final set before Alcaraz converted his second match point.

While there was joy for Alcaraz, the valiant efforts of his fellow Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina were in vain against Novak Djokovic, who eked out a 7-6(4) 7-6(5) 6-2 triumph.

Novak Djokovic in action at the French Open on June 2, 2023© Reuters

Converting just 41% of his break opportunities and winning 40% of points behind his second serve, Djokovic did not make life easy for himself on the clay, but an early break to love in the third set following two gruelling tie-breaks swung the momentum firmly in his favour.

Elsewhere in Friday's third-round matches, Stefanos Tsitsipas strolled to a 6-2 6-2 6-3 win over Diego Schwartzman, while Lorenzo Sonego came back from two sets down to sink Andrey Rublev 5-7 0-6 6-3 7-6[5] 6-3.

The final contest of the day between Juan Pablo Varillas and Polish 13th seed Hubert Hurkacz also went the distance, and the former prevailed 3-6 6-3 7-6[3] 4-6 6-2 to book a last-16 date with Djokovic.

Finally, women's second seed Aryna Sabalenka continued her bid for a maiden Roland-Garros crown by beating Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2 6-2, but third seed Jessica Pegula was shocked 6-1 6-3 by Belgium's Elise Mertens.

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