Stefanos Tsitsipas in cruise control at French Open, Novak Djokovic row simmers

Stefanos Tsitsipas enjoyed an incident-free path into the third round of the French Open with a win over Roberto Carballes Baena on Wednesday but all eyes will be on Novak Djokovoic later as a political row sparked by the two-times champion intensified.

Tsitsipas is chasing his first Grand Slam title and made a sluggish start to his campaign against Jiri Vesely but the fifth seed looked back to his best against Carballes Baena, as he came through a mid-match test to beat the Spaniard 6-3 7-6(4) 6-2.

Anna Blinkova later dashed French hopes with a stunning 4-6 6-3 7-5 win over fifth seed Caroline Garcia, finally wrapping up the thrilling contest on her ninth matchpoint.

The fallout of Djokovic’s statement earlier this week that “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia” continued as the Kosovo Olympic authorities asked the International Olympic Committee to open disciplinary proceedings against the world number three.

Djokovic wrote the message on a camera lens after his first-round win on Monday, the same day that some 30 NATO peacekeeping troops were hurt in clashes with Serb protesters in the town of Zvecan – where the 22-times major champion’s father grew up.

Serbian authorities said 52 protesters were also wounded.

“Djokovic has yet again promoted the Serbian nationalists’ propaganda and used the sport platform to do so,” said Ismet Krasniqi, the president of Kosovo’s Olympic Committee.

“The further post-match statements made by such a public figure without any feeling of remorse directly result in raising the level of tension and violence between the two countries.”

France’s Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said that the message sent by Djokovic, who takes on Marton Fucsovics later in the evening, was “not appropriate” and should not happen again.

Three-times quarter-finalist Elina Svitolina took a leaf out of her husband Gael Monfils’ playbook following the local hero’s epic win over Sebastian Baez a day earlier to script her own comeback and down Australian Storm Hunter 2-6 6-3 6-1.

She then waded into the debate around Djokovic and said the world number three should have the right to express his opinion.

“If you stand for something, you think that this is the way, you should say,” Svitolina said.

“If you’re with a friend sitting, talking, you’re going to say your opinion, he is going to say his opinion. So why not?”

Svitolina, who has called for a ban on Russian and Belarusian tennis players over Moscow’s 2022 invasion of her country, admitted she did not know the politics of Serbia.

“But coming back to the politics in sports, as I think all Ukrainians mention, it’s connected very much because we are all people. We all know the politics of our own country a bit, the way you hear something here, something there,” Svitolina said.

“For me it’s just part of human life, politics, sports, you know, different things.”

Former champion Jelena Ostapenko had not made second week at Roland Garros in her last five appearances and the 2017 winner’s disappointing run continued as unseeded American Peyton Stearns prevailed 6-3 1-6 6-2 in their second-round clash.

The feisty Latvian’s exit along with 2021 champion Barbora Krejcikova’s defeat by Lesia Tsurenko a day earlier means holder Iga Swiatek is the only remaining winner of the Suzanne Lenglen Cup remaining in the women’s draw.

World number three Jessica Pegula, who is hoping to hoist her maiden Grand Slam trophy on the Parisian clay, advanced into the third round after her ailing Italian opponent Camila Giorgi retired after losing the opening set 6-2.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.