She bites the bullet with rage! Symbol of his impotence. The beautiful Parisian adventure of Léolia Jeanjean has come to an end. Brutally. The winding Frenchwoman, who was playing her first Grand Slam tournament at the age of 26, was beaten this Saturday morning, in the 3rd round of Roland-Garros, by the Romanian Irina Camelia-Begu in two sets (6-1, 6- 4) and 1h25 into the game. A scathing setback against an opponent who had made herself known – despite herself – in the previous round by involuntarily swinging her racket at a young spectator. A gesture that could have cost him his place in the tournament…
If authoritarian in the previous round against Karolína Pliskova (6-2, 6-2), seeded n ° 8 and double Grand Slam finalist (Wimbledon 2020 and US Open 2016), the Frenchwoman did not, this time , was only a shadow of itself. Perhaps overtaken by the stakes of this meeting. Like the young Diane Parry on Friday, she never seemed able to destabilize her opponent, world No. 63.
Léolia Jeanjean, 225th in the world, will undoubtedly regret the loss of the first game of the game. A marathon game of almost 10 minutes during which she got many break points without succeeding in converting it. Barely twenty minutes after giving up this first game, she was already trailing 1 set to nothing (1-6).
A revolt too late
At the end of the match, the Montpellier player managed to let go of her shots. To surprise his opponent and thrill the audience of the Suzanne-Lenglen court. After missing the first 10 break points, she converts the 11th and comes back to 5-3 in the 2nd set… She even saves 3 match points. But the revolt was too late.
Thanks to his career on Parisian soil, the former great hope of French tennis in the early 2010s – before stopping his career due to an injury (triple dislocation of the patella of the left knee) – should soon reach the top 150 worldwide. Returning to the circuit in 2020 “to have no regrets”, Jeanjean will be able to pursue his dream of competing in the 4 Grand Slams.
“I will be able to afford a coach”
“I was thinking of going back to the ITF circuit (the secondary circuit), finally I will be able to compete in WTA events, she said after the 2nd round. It changes everything, financially too. I will be able to afford a coach, a structure, to be followed. It changes everything ! “. And that also equates to a win when you come out of nowhere.
If the day of the French could not start worse, all hopes remain allowed for the future. The veterans, Alizé Cornet, 32, and Gilles Simon, 37, and the young Hugo Gaston – in the evening – on the ocher of the Central to try to win their sesame for the 8th finals.
