ROBERTO Carballes Baena has won an epic battle over top 10 player and ninth seed, Denis Shapovalov to book his spot in the third round at Roland Garros. The Spanish world number 101 backed up his shellacking of Steve Johnson in the first round – dropping just two games – to overcome Shapovalov in a five-hour titanic struggle.

Carballes Baena hit the trifecta of firsts for his efforts, reaching the third round of a Grand Slam, defeating a top 10 player and winning a five-set match for the first time in his ATP Tour career. A clay court specialist having played more than 70 per cent of his matches on the surface, defeated Shapovalov 7-5 6-7 6-3 3-6 8-6.

“It is a dream for me to win a match like this,” Carballes Baena said post-match. “I tried to be very solid and focused on my game. Shapovalov served very well, but I played a very good match. It was the first time I beat a Top 10 player, reached the third round of a Grand Slam, and the first time I won a fifth set.”

It did not look good for Carballes Baena in the deciding set, a break down trailing at 3-5 and Shapovalov served for the match at 5-4 and then again at 6-5 after the Canadian broke his lower ranked opponent in the eleventh match, Never giving up, Carballes Baena kept fighting and won the last three games of the match to salute and book his spot in the Round of 32.

The Spaniard now takes on 18th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the Round of 32 after the Bulgarian defeated Slovakian Andrej Martin, 6-4 7-6 6-1 in their clash. The winner of that battle will take on either Stefanos Tsitsipas or Aljaz Bedene in the Round of 16, after the Greek fifth seed trounced Pablo Cuevas, 6-1 6-4 6-2, while Bedene won through in four sets over Serbian qualifier Nikola Milojevic.

Most of the matches went as planned on day four, with just two more seeds dropping, the biggest upset of which was German qualifier Daniel Altmaier taking down his compatriot, Jan-Lennard Struff. The world number 186 showed plenty of talent in defeating the 30th seed, winning in a surprising three sets, 6-3 7-6 6-3 to now move on and have a tough challenge in Matteo Berrettini. The seventh seed Italian took four sets to shake off South African Lloyd Harris, winning 6-4 4-6 6-2 6-3 to make his way into the third round of the French Open.

It marked a record four Italians who reached the third round following the three victories on day three from the nation. Speaking of clay court nations, it will be an all-seeded, all-Spanish battle in the third round when 10th seed Roberto Bautista Agut takes on his compatriot, 17th seed Pablo Carreno Busta. Bautista Agut brushed aside Hungarian Attila Balazs in the second round, while Carreno Busta did it just as easy against Argentinian Guido Pella. They both only dropped six games in their respective matches and head into the Round of 32 match having not dropped a set yet.

In the only other all-seeded match in the third round, 15th seed Russian Karen Khachanov will lock horns with 20th seed Cristian Garin in what is set to be an entertaining contest. Khachanov had some good practice at tiebreakers in the second round, playing three of them and winning two on his way to a 6-1 6-7 7-6 7-6 victory against Czech Jiri Vesely, while Garin also dropped a set against Australian Marc Polmans, before winning 6-7 6-2 7-6 6-4.

The winner of that third round clash will likely face Novak Djokovic who again wasted no time on court in destroying his latest opponent, Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis. Djokovic took just 83 minutes – beating his first round time – to win 6-1 6-2 6-2 in an embarrassingly one-sided match. Next up is an opponent who lost in qualifying but got a reprieve as a lucky loser, Colombia’s Daniel Elahi Galan. The Colombian earned the right to face Djokovic after blitzing American Tennys Sandgren 6-2 6-2 6-3 in the Round of 64.

Meanwhile 13th seed Andrey Rublev will take on South African Kevin Anderson in the third round after Rublev won in four sets against Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. The Russian defeated his opponent 7-5 6-1 3-6 6-1 to move through to the next round to take on the big-serving South African who upset 22nd seed Serbian Dusan Lajovic, 6-2 6-4 4-6 3-6 6-3, holding on in three hours and nine minutes. Lajovic was the second consecutive Serbian that Anderson had ousted in Paris after defeating Laslo Djere in the first round.

The other two winners on day four were unseeded pair, Thiago Monteiro and Marton Fucsovics. They guarantee at least one unseeded player will reach the fourth round of the French Open following Monteiro’s straight sets win over American Marcos Giron, while Fucsovics had a memorable win over Albert Ramos-Vinolas, 7-6 6-3 7-5 to book his spot in the Round of 32.

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