Madison Keys saves match points, Jack Draper cools Fonseca fever | Roland Garros Wrap, Day 7

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The second Grand Slam event of the year is moving from first week to second seek. Which means it’s time for the world’s best players to shift into a higher gear, and the cream of the sport to rise to the top.

On Saturday, we saw that phenomenon play out in a couple of different ways on the men’s side. Once by a player—Jannik Sinner—who we know is elite. And once by a player—Jack Draper—who may be joining him at the top, even on clay, very soon.

Here’s a look at Sinner’s and Draper’s statement victories, and a much much tighter one by Madison Keys.

Jannik Sinner said he was “feeling the ball very good.” That was an understatement

Jannik Sinner d. Jiri Lehecka 6-0, 6-1, 6-2

When the men’s draw was made, I looked at this third-round matchup as a potential speed bump for Sinner. Lehecka is just 23, but has already cracked the Top 25. He has a clean baseline game that works well on clay, and is only going to take him higher.

I shouldn’t have worried.

Instead of a speed bump, Lehecka was flattened right out of the gate. If anything, Sinner used the Czech, and his clean shots, as a way to groove his own game, and accelerate into the second week.

This was the version of the Italian that we saw drop the hammer on Casper Ruud a couple of weeks ago in Rome. He stood up on the baseline, took his opponent’s high-bouncing topspin, and either pummeled the ball into the corners with heavy topspin or dropped it short. Lehecka, forced to guard every inch of the court, was pushed back and hard-pressed to make any inroads in the rallies or put Sinner under any pressure. He looked helpless, and largely resigned to his terrible fate, as he lost the first 11 games. His first service hold, at 6-0, 5-0, earned him a standing ovation from the Lenglen crowd.

I think in early stages of Grand Slams is good that you don’t spend so much time, if you have the chance, on court. Jannik Sinner, who is yet to drop at Roland Garros

Sinner finished with 39 winners again nine errors, and faced just one break point.

“It was a very great match from my side,” Sinner said. “I think the start of each set, with early break he gave me, then the confidence to keep going, and I'm very happy about today’s match.”

“This morning I felt that I was, you know, feeling the ball very good.”

At this stage of the tournament, tennis fans are gauging the forms of the two top seeds, Sinner and Alcaraz, as they make their way through the draw. After their third-round wins, you have to give the edge to Sinner. Where Alcaraz dropped a set to Damir Dzumhur and looked like he might drop another, Sinner is 9-0 in sets, and has yet to be pushed to a tiebreaker. At No. 34, Lehecka is also the highest-ranked opponent either has faced, and Sinner raised his game accordingly.

Of course, as Sinner likes to remind us, every day is different, and form can change on a dime. What may be most important is how much simpler Sinner made life for himself in their third-round matches. While Alcaraz loves the spectacular, Sinner largely eschews it. He doesn’t hit many aces, but he won 83 percent of first-serve points in this match. He drives most of his returns deep and down the middle. And he pulls the trigger only when he’s moving forward and an opening is there. So far it has been a formula for efficiency, and one you’d guess will serve him well later.

“I think in early stages of Grand Slams is good that you don’t spend so much time, if you have the chance, on court,” says Sinner, who faces Andrey Rublev next. “So I’m happy to do that.”

Jack Draper continued to dispel any doubts about his clay-court potential

Jack Draper d. Joao Fonseca 6-2, 6-4, 6-2

Even more so than with Sinner and Lehecka, this was a third-rounder that popped out at everyone when the draw came released. The 23-year-old Brit and the 18-year-old Brazilian have been two of the biggest upward movers and most exciting surprises on the men’s side in 2025. While Draper easily won their only previous meeting in Indian Wells in March, a best-of-five contest on clay promised more.

Promised, yes. Delivered, no. Instead of a competitive affair, round two of Draper vs. Fonseca offered more of the same—i.e., thorough domination by Draper. He won 93 percent of his first-serve points, was +12 in winner-to-error ratio, and faced just two break points, both of which he saved.

Draper’s heavy forehand, which seems to get more imposing by the week, did a lot of the heavy lifting. His ability to hit it with pace and consistency down the line in particular made life nightmarish for Fonseca. The teen was left vulnerable to Draper’s excellent drop shot, and he ended up turning into the anti-Sinner: He went for broke from behind the baseline, and littered up the court with 38 errors in 26 games.

“I think it was a solid performance from my side. Did a good job. Tough conditions,” Draper said in his customary low-key way.

“I felt like, you know, I was pushing him back with my forehand quite a lot, and then [the drop shot] was open.”

If we had any doubts about Draper’s potential on clay, he’s doing his best to dispel them this spring. Today we saw that his lefty serve can be every bit as dominant on dirt. He made the final on fast clay in Madrid, and he’s looking comfortable on the slower stuff in Paris, where he’ll play a wild-card of an opponent, Alexander Bublik, in a winnable match next.

Madison Keys won her 10th straight Slam match—by a millimeter

Madison Keys d. Sofia Kenin 4-6, 6-3, 7-5

TNT commentator Brian Anderson couldn’t control himself.

“Oh man! Come on Madi Keys! In the clutch!” he burst out as a Keys backhand found the corner and skipped past Kenin’s desperately outstretched racquet for a winner.

You could understand his reaction. This wasn’t any old backhand, and it wasn’t a moment when most players would have have tried for such a daring winner. Keys was facing her third match point, while serving at 4-5 in the final set against her fellow American.

It was left to Anderson’s broadcast partner, Mary Joe Fernandez, to explain, with an incredulous lilt in her voice, what had just happened.

“She’s got 19 backhand errors in this match,” Fernandez said. “It’s a shot that has gotten her in so much trouble. And what does she do on her third match point down? ‘Let’s hit a winner crosscourt.’”

With that shot, the dream of a calendar-year Slam on the women’s side lives on—by a thread. On an earlier match point of Kenin's, Keys hit another backhand that appeared to barely clip the baseline.

For a long time, it didn’t look meant to be. She dropped the first set, and for stretches, Kenin, a former finalist here, was the better player and looked destined to win. But Keys pulled out five three-set matches on her way to the Australian Open title in January, and must feel now as if she knows how to handle those moments at the majors in a way she might not have before.

“I think especially tonight I just kept thinking before each match point that I wanted to make sure that I didn’t give the point away,” Keys said. “I wanted to make sure that I stayed tough and that she had to win the point.”

“I think that I’m going to continue to kind of just focus on that and kind of rely on that experience that I have now had to win big matches. I feel like, you know, using that experience worked well tonight.”

For Kenin, it was a bitter end to one of her best post-comeback performances. The old familiar elements of her matches were all back in place: Her father, Alex, couldn’t watch, and her racquet took a pounding, and a kicking, after each painful miss.

Win or lose, it still has to count as progress for her.