UNLIKE the first two days of the 2022 French Open, day three was not as much of a bloodbath for the favourites.

Unfortunately for fan favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, day three meant an end to his illustrious career. Despite the warm reception he got pre match out on Philippe Chatrier, he was no match for eighth seed Casper Ruud, with the Norwegian winning 6⁶-7⁸, 7⁷-6⁴, 6-2, 7⁷-6⁰.

It was impossible to split the pair in the opening set. Neither were able to break each either during the set, and it took an unforced error from Ruud that Tsonga converted for the pair to finally be split and the Frenchman to take the set.

The stats show the evenness of the set.

Both men served an ace and a double fault each.

Rudd had a better first serve percentage, but Tsonga won a higher percentage on his first serve. However, Ruud’s second serve won percentages was higher.

Tsonga hit a higher number of winners, but his unforced error count was significantly higher than Ruud’s, more than double in fact. However, Ruud did hit more forced errors then Tsonga.

The second set was just about as even.

Tsonga got broken in the seventh game of the set but broke back the very next game.

They would be the only games either man could break for the rest of the set as a second straight set went into a tiebreaker. However, unlike in the first set it was Ruud who won the tiebreaker 7-4.

The stats also told a very different story to the first set.

Ruud served the only ace of the set, but Tsonga served the only double fault of the set.

Ruud also had the higher first serve percentage and win percentage on both the first and second serve.

Tsonga served a significantly higher number of winners, but his forced and unforced error count was also significantly higher than Ruud’s.

The third set was when things really started to fall apart for Tsonga.

He held his first service game of the set, but won his only other game for the set four games as Ruud ran away with the set.

Tsonga actually served more aces in the third set then Ruud, but he also served more doubly faults then Ruud did.

Ruud also had a higher first serve percentage and win on first and second serve percentages then Tsonga, and also hit more winners.

The forced errors were almost event, but Tsonga hit three times more unforced errors then Ruud did.

It went back to a tight affair in the final set.

Tsonga broke Ruud in the 11th game of the set, but could not close it out in the next game so it went to a set tie breaker for the third time in the match.

However, this tie breaker did not go the same way as the others and Tsonga did not earn a point and Ruud ran away with the game and took the set and the match.

Ruud served a whopping four aces in the set, which was double the number Tsonga did, but neither player served a double fault.

Tsonga pretty comfortably won the first serve percentage battle for the set, but Ruud had comfortably better percentages for wins on first and second serve.

Tsonga’s unforced error count was again high, but he did record less forced errors then Ruud did in the final set.

AROUND THE COURTS

Ruud was not the only top seed to get the win on day three, but many were pushed.

Stefanos Tsitsipas lost the first two sets against Lorenzo Musetti but went on to win in five, while Aryna Sabalenka also lost her first set to Chloe Paquet, but went on to win in three.

Australian Open Semi Finalist Madison Key was pushed in her first up match against Russian Anna Kalinskaya, but prevailed in three sets.

Andrey Rublev was also pushed in his first up match against Soonwoo Kwon, but ultimately prevailed in four sets.

It was much smoother sailing for Paula Badosa and Daniil Medvedev though, who both won in straight sets.

It was a bit of a disastrous day for the Australians. Alex de Minaur lost in a five set epic against Hugo Gaston that lasted almost four hours, while John Millman lost in straight sets to the 27th seed Sebastian Korda.