No. 2 seed Karolina Pliskova exited yet one more Grand Slam within the early phases, falling to 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia within the second spherical at Roland Garros on Thursday.

Ostapenko, whose solely match wins on the French Open earlier than this week got here in her title run three years in the past, bounced the big-serving Czech 6-4, 6-2.

Pliskova put fewer than half of her first serves in play, whereas Ostapenko fired 27 winners to 19 unforced errors. Pliskova was on the ropes in her first spherical, too, needing three units to get previous an Egyptian qualifier.

“Possibly identical stage because the match earlier than, however in fact [Ostapenko] is significantly better participant,” Pliskova mentioned. “Not a lot to say about this match.”

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Pliskova is the highest-ranked participant of both gender (No. 4) with no Grand Slam title, but hasn’t made it previous the fourth spherical at a serious because the 2019 Australian Open.

She’s performed six Slams as a No. 1 or No. 2 seed, one shy of Caroline Wozniacki‘s complete earlier than she broke by way of on the 2018 Australian Open and two shy of Simona Halep‘s complete earlier than she received the 2018 French Open.

Ostapenko, in the meantime, is having a really totally different profession.

She received the 2017 Roland Garros title, two days after turning 20, whereas ranked 47th. She hasn’t gotten previous the third spherical of a serious since 2018 Wimbledon, together with first-round French Open exits the final two years, and is again all the way down to No. 43 within the WTA rankings.

“It’s laborious to check with 2017. As I mentioned, it was like three years in the past, and I used to be a lot youthful, and in addition I used to be fearless. No person knew me,” Ostapenko mentioned. “The world doesn’t cease with successful just one Grand Slam. In fact I wish to obtain extra, and I wish to be again in high 5, high 10.”

She dropped simply 9 video games in 4 units this week.

Ostapenko will get 87th-ranked Spaniard Paula Badosa in third spherical. Badosa dispatched 2018 French Open runner-up Sloane Stephens 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

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French Open: Karolina Pliskova, high participant sans Slam, once more exits early initially appeared on NBCSports.com