Key events
Of course, as I type, she’s broken back for 3-3 but, as we said at the top, Mcnally is a tricky test and a battle not unlikely.
Bencic looks a slightly different player since returning from maternity leave. I’m not going to attempt any cod psychology about a sense of perspective and wellbeing, but it’s hard not to. Of course, she’s still got a no-show in her – remember her Wimbledon semi against Swiatek – but she’s no longer one of the mist likely seeds to suffer an upset.
We’re away on all courts bar Chatrier. On Lenglen, Khachanov leads the unheralded Argentine, Marco Trungelliti, 4-2; on Mathieu, it’s Bencic 3-2 Mcnally, with a break; and elsewhere, Davidovich Fokina, who came through a marathon against Damir Dzumhur, leads Tirante 5-2; Korpatch leads Wang 3-1; and Cina leads De Jong 2-1 with a break.
Preamble
Salut et bienvenue à Roland-Garros 2026 – quatrième jour!
And into round two we go. We open today with a nasty one for Belinda Bencic, the no 11 seed taking on Caty Mcnally while, at the same time Karen Kahchanov returns – and, an hour later, so too does Iga Swiatek, the four-time champ facing the Czech youngster, Sara Bejlek.
The match of the day, though, could well come on Court 4, where Marta Kostyuk meets Katie Volynets and Joan Fonseca faces Dino Prizmic, the 20-year-old Croatian who’s beaten both Novak Djokovic and Ben Shelton this clay-swing. That said, don’t be sleeping on the tussle tucked away on 13 between young Americans Alex Michelsen and Nishesh Basavareddy, conqueror of Taylor Fritz.
Otherwise, we’ve plenty of big names getting to it – Elina Svitolina, Elena Rybakina, Andrey Rubelv, Jasmine Paolini, Mirra Andreeva, Karolína Muchová, Hailey Baptiste and more – some of whom will presumably be involved in epics, the joy that of them that, at this stage, we can’t predict which. And if to that we add Fran Jones – coming off the biggest win of her career against Bea Haddad Maia – against Marie Bouzkovà, Ugo Humbert v Quentin Halys and Casper Ruud v Hamad Medhedovic, we have another day of compelling Grand Slam TennisTM to elevate and enrich our existence.
Chauette! On y va!