Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex de Minaur are among four Australian players scheduled to compete on Day 5 of Roland Garros 2024.
Paris, France, May 30, 2024 | Lee Rogers
Australian competitors Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex de Minaur will face an exciting yet unfamiliar situation on Day 5 of Roland Garros 2024.
Kokkinakis advanced to the second round of singles for the 10th time in her career at a Grand Slam tournament. However, it was the first time that the world’s top 100 faced a lower ranked player.
“You can’t get too ahead of yourself. “I know there are no easy matches in a Grand Slam.” Kokkinakis spoke ahead of his second-round match against the world No. 148. Giulio Zepieri.
Kokkinakis is familiar with the 22-year-old Italian qualifier, having won their only previous meeting in three sets at an ATP Challenger event on clay in 2019.
“I watched him play a little bit and wondered why he wasn’t improving in terms of rankings, because I think he is very good and he proved that he beat someone from France in the tournament,” said the 28-year-old. . Kokkinakis spoke, referring to Zeppieri’s first-round win over world No. 22 and French hopeful Adrian Mannarino.
“I’m looking forward to the battle.”
World number 11 de Minaur is seeking to reach the third round for the first time in Paris and declared he felt more confident and ‘capable’ than ever.
“On the surface, I am a completely different player than I have been in previous years,” admitted De Minaur, who has struggled on clay throughout his career. “It’s comfortable.”
De Minaur’s second-round opponent, world no. 64 Jaume Munar is a 27-year-old Spanish player who counts clay as his favorite surface.
Munnar was a men’s singles finalist at Roland Garros in 2014 and won the men’s doubles title at the tournament a year later.
Although their head-to-head record is tied with two wins each, De Minaur has won their two most recent meetings. This includes a clay court clash in Madrid in 2021.
Rain has disrupted the schedule and no doubles matches have yet been completed in the tournament.
Australian duo Daria Saville and Ajla Tomljanovic are set to resume a delayed first-round doubles match after falling 2-5 down in the opening set.
Roland Garros will be broadcast live in Australia on Nine Network and Stan Sport from 6:30pm ET.
Australia’s performance on Day 5:
Men’s singles round 2
[11] Alex de Minaur (AUS) v Jaume Munar (ESP), Court 6, Third Match
Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) V [Q] Giulio Zepieri (ITA), court 10, third game
Women’s Doubles Round 1
Daria Saville (AUS)/Ayla Tomjanovic (AUS) V [16] Miyu Kato (Japan)/Nadiia Kichenok (UKR), court 3, game 4, finish 2-5
> See: Roland Garros 2024 Day 5 Schedule
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