French Open: Vekić & Martić advance to 3rd round at Roland Garros, Čilić out

Donna Vekić (Photo credit: Mario Ćužić/HTS)

PARIS, 29 May 2019 – Croatia’s Donna Vekić and Petra Martić have advanced through to the 3rd round of the 2019 French Open at Roland-Garros on Wednesday, whilst Marin Čilić has been knocked out.

Martić was first on court today and made light work of her second round match against Kristina Mladenovic from France, winning in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.

Petra Martić (Photo credit: Mario Ćužić/HTS)

Martić hit three aces and won 85% of points on second serve as she broke Mladenovic five times in the match which lasted just over one hour. Martić meets 2nd seed Karolina Pliskova in the third round. 

Vekić joined Martić in the third round after beating Rebecca Peterson from Sweden. Vekić lost the first set 6-1, but came back strong to win the next two sets dropping only three games to win 1-6, 6-1, 6-2. 

Meanwhile, 11th seed Čilić was stopped by Grigor Dimitrov in the second round after a four hour and 20 minute battle. After winning the first set in a tie-breaker, Čilić would drop the second 6-4. 

Čilić (Photo credit: Mario Ćužić/HTS)

He would take the third set but Dimitrov would not give up and forced the match into a fifth set which he would take 6-3 to win the thriller 6-7, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3. 

Fellow Croatians Borna Ćorić and Ivo Karlović are in second round action on Thursday.