Van Rijthoven reaches final qualifying round Roland Garros, Lamens stranded | NOW

Tim van Rijthoven came one step closer to his debut at a Grand Slam tournament on Wednesday. The Dutchman settled in the penultimate round of the qualifying tournament of Roland Garros with Frenchman Enzo Couacaud. For Suzan Lamens and Jesper de Jong, it will not come to a debut in the clay tournament for the time being.

The 25-year-old Van Rijthoven needed 1 hour and 27 minutes to beat the two years older Couacaud on the gravel in Paris: 6-4 and 7-5.

Van Rijthoven, the number 202 in the world, is one victory away from participating in the main tournament of Roland Garros. In the third and final round of qualifying he will face Slovakian Norbert Gombos.

Van Rijthoven can provide a personal first in Paris. The Roosendaler had never been part of the main schedule of a Grand Slam tournament before. Botic van de Zandschulp and Tallon groenpoor are automatically certain of participating in the main tournament of Roland Garros.

In any case, De Jong has to postpone his debut for a while. The 21-year-old Haarlemmer was just short in the second qualifying round in the decisive third set against the German Daniel Masur: 6-4, 4-6 and 6-7 (3).

No debut for Lamens yet

It will not come to a Grand Slam debut for Lamens for the time being. The 22-year-old Dutch lost on Wednesday in the second round of the qualifying tournament.

Lamens, who started qualifying with a win on Monday, had to acknowledge her superiority in Rebecca Sramková from Slovakia despite a good start. It was 6-4, 5-7 and 2-6 in a match that lasted almost 2.5 hours.

It was the first time that Lamens participated in the qualifications of a Grand Slam tournament. So far, she has mainly appeared at lower-rated tournaments, although she made her debut last month in the Colombian capital Bogota at a WTA tournament.

Based on her ranking, Arantxa Rus is already participating in Roland Garros, which starts on Sunday. The second Grand Slam tournament of the year was won last season for the women by Barbora Krejcíková and for the men by Novak Djokovic.