Alejandro Davidovich Fokina leveled his French Open first-round match with Damir Dzumhur at 1-1 after dropping the opening set 6-7 on a tiebreak. He answered with a 6-3 second set in Paris on Sunday.
Roland Garros turns on the second set
Davidovich Fokina had been trailing 3-2 on serve in the second set before taking control. He later led 5-2 and served for the set at 5-3, closing it out 6-3 to pull the match back to even.
The shift came after Dzumhur had held set point in the first set, only for Davidovich Fokina to stay in the game and push it deep. That left the Spaniard with the harder route into the match, but it also kept the contest alive after the tiebreak loss.
Dzumhur’s lead did not hold
The first set went Dzumhur’s way on the tiebreak, giving him the early edge in the first-round match at Roland Garros. Davidovich Fokina then used the second set to erase that gap and reset the contest at one set apiece.
This was the kind of swing that changes the shape of a match quickly. After the opener slipped away, the second set gave Davidovich Fokina a clean answer and left the first-round result still undecided at 1-1.
Paris stays in play
The live blog format meant the match was still unfolding while other French Open updates were moving through Paris, but this was the line that mattered for Davidovich Fokina. He had already shown the response required to stay in the round, and the scoreline made the next set the one that would decide whether he moved on.
For a first-round match at Roland Garros, that is the immediate task now: carry the momentum from 6-3 and turn the comeback into a place in the next round.
