Jack Sock advances to third round of French Open singles; doubles match looms Friday

Jack Sock has reached the third round of the French Open for the second year in a row.

On a cool and windy Thursday, the product of Blue Valley North High outlasted Pablo Carreno Busta 6-7 (2), 7-6 (4), 6-1, 7-6 (4) to advance at Roland Garros.

“I thought he was on top of his game today,” the 37th-ranked Sock said of Busta. “It was a match I had to win; it wasn’t going to be given to me, by any means.”

Sock indicated that he took command of the match once his serve came around. A turning point came when he was serving at 4-5 in the second set and saved three set points.

He then prevailed in the tiebreaker.

“I finally found my serve three hours in, which was nice,” Sock said. “It was letting me down there for a while, but I was able to find a little bit and the rhythm there at the end, and it helped me get through.”

Sock, 22, hit 67 winners and capitalized on five of his eight break-point chances to beat the Spaniard. He next faces 18-year-old Borna Coric, who upset No. 18 seed Tommy Robredo, a five-time qualifier at the French Open, on Thursday.

It will be the first meeting between Sock and Coric, but Sock downplayed talk of a “battle of the young guns.”

“I haven’t seen him play a whole lot,” Sock said. “Saw him playing a few points today before I played. Just know he’s solid on both sides.

“We’re among the younger guys on tour. He’s broken through at obviously a very fast pace. ... He’s very impressive.”

On Tuesday, Sock advanced by beating Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, a Wimbledon semifinalist last year.

Sock won his first ATP singles title last month in Houston, also playing on a clay court.

He and Vasek Pospisil are the defending Wimbledon doubles champions. They’re teamed up in doubles on Friday at Roland Garros.

In other action Thursday:

▪ Two-time women’s champion Serena Williams made it past the second round by beating Anna-Lena Friedsam 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. Next up is Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, a two-time Australian Open champion.

▪ Nine-time winner Rafael Nadal had a trouble-free passage to the third round against fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, winning 6-4, 6-3, 6-1.

▪ Top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia overcame hip discomfort to fire 35 winners past Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller in a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 victory.

▪ Britain’s Andy Murray overcame Portugal’s Joao Sousa, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, and John Isner, the highest-seeded American man at No. 16, lost to France’s Jeremy Chardy, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

▪ And in a marathon battle between two former women’s champions on Court No. 1, Francesca Schiavone of Italy outlasted Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-7 (11-13), 7-5, 10-8.

This story was originally published May 28, 2015 at 6:57 PM with the headline "Jack Sock advances to third round of French Open singles; doubles match looms Friday."