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Maria Sakkari, Emma Raducanu suffer exits at French Open
Maria Sakkari was the latest high seed to exit after Tunisia's Ons Jabeur (6) and defending champion Barbora Krejcikova (2) were knocked out in the first round while Emma Raducanu's run at her first Roland Garros finally came to an end.
Fourth seed Maria Sakkari and US Open champion Emma Raducanu were both knocked out of the French Open in the second round on Wednesday. Greece's Sakkari fell to a 7-6(5) 7-6(4) by Czech Karolina Muchova in the second round at Roland Garros. Briton Raducanu, who was playing at the French Open for the first time, lost 3-6 6-1 6-1 to an inspired Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
Sakkari, a semi-finalist in Paris last year, never found her groove on Court Suzanne Lenglen as her opponent, who reached the Australian Open semi-finals last year, set up a meeting with American Amanda Anisimova.
The Greek was the latest high seed to exit after Tunisia's Ons Jabeur (6) and defending champion Barbora Krejcikova (2) were knocked out in the first round. World number one and red hot favourite Swiatek and third seed Paula Badosa are the only two players from the top six left in the women's draw.
Sakkari was frustrated she could not turn things around and believes her physical condition could help her achieve better results if women played the best of five sets like the men.
"It would be amazing for me because I feel like my physical part is my strength," the world number three said.
"But the tournament is never going to end, so we're going to have to stay here for a month or build 15 more courts. So I don't think that's ever going to happen because the calendar has to be shorter, and I don't see it happening."
The 12th seeded Raducanu, who had to dig deep in her opening match to come from a set down to beat Czech qualifier Linda Noskova, faded badly after a strong start as her inexperience on clay was exposed by her opponent.
"I still have got quite a long way to go on this surface," Raducanu, who played her first pro match on clay as recently as last month, told reporters.
