“Today was one of my best performances so far” – Clinical Tsitsipas brushes aside Zhang to make fourth round

Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to the last 16 of Roland-Garros by beating Chinese Zhizhen Zhang 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 in Paris.

The ninth seed put in a professional and business-like performance against the considerable talents of Zhang, who is a dangerous early-round opponent for seeded players.

But the Greek was untroubled by Zhang, as his clay-court prowess and experience on these courts proved key in an ultimately comfortable win.

Tsitsipas was runner-up in Paris three years ago, but has not been past the quarter-finals since then.

He will be hoping to end that run and return to the business end of the tournament, where he remains one of the favourites for the title in a very open year on the men’s side.

Tsitsipas will play Italian Matteo Arnaldi next for a place in the last eight.

Ahead of his victory, the Greek won against Hungarian Marton Fucsovics (7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-1) and edged out German Daniel Altmaier (6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-4).

Zhang, ranked No 44, edged out Australian Aleksandar Vukic (6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5) and Italian Lorenzo Sonego (7-5, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4) earlier in the tournament.

Paris (Grand Slam), other third-round results (Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 53.478.000, most recent results first):

• Novak Djokovic vs. Lorenzo Musetti
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Casper Ruud
• Taylor Fritz vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis
• Alexander Zverev vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Tommy Paul
• Jozef Kovalik vs. Holger Rune
• Tomas Machac vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Alex De Minaur vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
• Corentin Moutet vs. Sebastian Ofner
• Ben Shelton vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
• Sebastian Korda vs. Carlos Alcaraz
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Denis Shapovalov: friday
• Zizou Bergs vs. Grigor Dimitrov: friday
• Jannik Sinner (2) beat Pavel Kotov: 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
• Matteo Arnaldi beat Andrey Rublev (6): 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-4