Roland Garros 2026 just took a DARK turn... (Day 4 Recap)

Day 4 of Roland Garros 2026 was...eventful to say the least. We might've seen the upset of the tournament with World No. 2 Elena Rybakina going down to Yuliia Starodubtseva. We later witnessed the most heartbreaking moment after Hailey Baptiste was forced to retire with a brutal knee injury. Xinyu Wang and Tamara Korpatsch had a testy line call dispute, leading to no handshake. Jakub Mensik suffered extreme cramps due to extreme heat conditions. And Belgian rising star Alexander Blockx might be gearing up to sue the tournament.

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Transcript

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I knew when Carlos Alcaraz withdrew due to an ankle injury that Rolling Girls 2026 probably would not live up to the very high standards that the 2025 tournament set. But this is in different areas. Day four was a movie, a horror movie. World number two, Elena Robacana suffered a really bizarre second-round loss where she committed nearly 50 more unforced errors than she did winners. Then Haley Baptiste, who was Robacna's projected third-round opponent, also went down, but she was forced to retire due to a truly gut-wrenching injury that could be maybe an ACL tear, God forbid. Another young player, Alexander Bloch, was forced to retire from the tournament due to an injury, and he's reportedly considering seeking compensation from the tournament. I'll delve into all these stories, talk about the results, and touch on some drama between player and player, and then player and coach. Bonjour, Jim IPO, Christian Bass Night at Benvenue Ally Christian's Court, where I cover tennis from all angles. If you have not yet already, make sure you subscribe and click that notification bell so you're notified whenever I post my day five Rolling Girls update. You're not gonna want to miss these updates because it seems like every day something crazy or is going on. First, talking about the upset of the tournament right now, and probably it might be the upset of the tournament. It's world number two, Alana Robacana. There will be no calendar slam in 2026 as the reigning Australian Open Champ suffered a shock second round exit today, falling to world number 55, Yulia Startup Sava, 366176, 104 in the third set, or 10 point tiebreak in the third set. I said before the tournament and in my previous video to watch out for startup Siva. She reached the finals of the Charleston 500. She has the fire power, especially off that forehand. And I knew Roland Garros would be a bigger challenge for Robacana with her serve just not being as effective on the slower clay. I did still expect Rabakana to come through this particular match, but I was not anticipating her forehand to be as poor as it was. Alana committed 71 unforced errors in total to just 22 winners, so that's a minus 49 winner to unforced error ratio. And according to the Roland Garros website, 52 of those 71 unforced errors came from the Robacana forehand. I don't even really need to do a big analysis of this match because that forehand single-handedly costs Robacana the match. It's been well known that Elena's forehand is the shakier groundstroke side of the two. When it's on, it's one of the best on tour. But when it's off, ugh, duck for cover. I want to make it clear too that Startup Seva played well for the most part, especially in the second set, where she finished that set with nine winners, eight unforced errors. She also did a great job of running around her backhand to hit her powerful, dangerous forehand. And she got Robacana moving quite a few times. And Elena's movement is not that great on the clay either. She's not the best slider. And then the third set, Startup Silva started out very strong. She got out to a double break, three love lead. And at one point, Robakina's coach, Stefano Vukov, left Suzanne Longland. So not great signs, but still without Vukov in her box, Robakina was able to fight back and she reigned in the forehand and was able to eventually get a lead. She was up 5'4 and then 6'5 at one point. I honestly think if Rabakina just locked in a little bit, she could have won in three sets, despite this probably being one of her worst matches ever. Because in those 5'4 and 6'5 return games of hers, she left the Ukrainian off the hook big time. She only took one point in those final two return games of hers, Rabakina did. Yulia did nothing special either. All eight points that Elena lost were pretty much unforced heirs. Every single one. It was shocking. It was a similar story in the 10-point tie break. Seven of the 10 points that Rabakina lost were probably from unforced heirs. I think there were really two standout good quality points that Startup Silva earned from just true great shots on her end. Still though, gotta credit her, Yulia, for keeping her composure after squandering that lead, that double break lead in the third set. And it's also her first top 10 win. And it's a great story too because Startup Silva started a GoFundMe page to pursue her pro career after graduating from Old Dominion University, which is actually 30 minutes from where I live. And I've practiced and played tournaments at ODU too. And I've seen her name on the banner. So great to see her having this much success on the pro tour. Now, with this exit, Sabalenka will remain number one after the tournament. Robokana had a shot if she went deep here. I think she would have to at least have made the semifinals to be in contention. But Arena currently has a 587-point lead over the Kazakh that will only grow as she, Sabalenka, moves on throughout this tournament. I think definitely Robakina is going to have to look at trying to solve this forehand issue. It's costed her not only here, but I remember against Kreshikova in 2024 at Wimbledon, that forehand just went off the rails. I don't know if it's more so a timing issue or just footwork, but it's a glaring, glaring problem. Now I knew with Rabakana's exit that 26th seed Haley Baptiste would have a big opportunity to reach the second week again here at Roland Garros. Baptiste was projected to play Atlanta in the third round, but the American suffered a gut-wrenching injury during her second round match against China's Shiyu Wong, retiring down 4-5. Baptiste was trying to mount a comeback against Wong, who was serving for the opening set at 5-4. Haley had three break points in this 5-4 game, but could not convert. And I'm just thinking, like, dang, if Haley just converted one of those break points, we probably would not be here. I swear. Anyways, on the third deuce of this game, Wong hit a neck court, so the ball bounced a bit higher. And so Haley hit one of her jumping forehands, falling back a little bit, but she kind of landed wrong. And she immediately went down and started screaming in pain. You could hear her say, Why? What did I do? And Haley's father, Kwasim, came out on court ASAP. And I I love to see that because that's a that's a great father right there. He sees his daughter in pain, he's gonna run out there. But it was also just heartbreaking to see though, because Kwasim obviously was distraught watching his daughter in that much pain. He knows how much work Haley's put in to pursue her dreams and to get to this point of being a true contender to go deep at a major. And Haley and the umpire, Maria Chichek, told Kwasim to step away. Haley herself, she was like, no, like back up a little bit. And I know that was even harder for him to not be able to console her. Baptiste was eventually helped up and was wheeled off court by the medics and retired, of course. Just horrible, horrible, horrible scenes. I almost shed a tear. I was close, my eyes were watering, honestly. And it was reminiscent of Bethany Maddox Sands at Wombled in 2017, where she ruptured a tendon in her right knee and dislocated a kneecap. And it's heartbreaking again because Haley was playing so great, playing the best tennis of her life. This was her big breakthrough year. It was the first slam where she was a seed. She just signed that Nike deal. It was her first tournament as a Nike-sponsored athlete. But on the bright side, at least she got the deal signed before this happened. But I think it might be a minute before we see Haley back out competing. It sounded and looked bad. And a trigger warning right here, but this could be an ACL tear. I'm not a doctor, of course, but ACL tears take six to 12 months to heal from, to come back from. Also, it could be an ankle issue, and Haley has had a history of ankle injuries. She was actually forced to retire from her opening round match at Roland Garrett's in 2022 due to an ankle problem and was sidelined for three months. She was also supposed to play doubles with Venus in the tournament, but that won't happen now. And it's just a harsh reminder that life is not fair. But if there's any silver lining, Haley is still young at just 24 years old. So I think she has many more years ahead of her. Her talent is immense. And I think this setback will make the bigger moments that are sure to come for her down the line even more special. Also, I think it's clear that Haley has a lot of love and support from her father. So I'm I'm glad that he's seemingly gonna be there for her and helping her through this recovery process. Now, zooming out of this section, the 18th seed Serrano Cristella will be a very strong favorite to reach the quarterfinals now. The Romanian dispatched of Eva Lee 636 love and will now take on to Argentina Solana Sierra, who took down Jasmine Paolini 366463. This is not surprising that Jasmine lost this early. She was in poor form heading into Roland Guerros and was also contending with a possible foot issue. But still, Paolini was in control of this match. She was up 4-2 in the second set. So it could have been a pretty straightforward win for the Italian, but credit to Sierra for battling back to claim her maiden top 20 win. Zooming out here even more, 8th seed Mira Andreva and number 10 seed Carolina Muhova are still on a path to meet in the round of 16. Andreva recovered from a set down to upend Marina Balsalos Ribera 366161. The 19-year-old now takes on 27th seed Marie Boscova, which could be a pretty interesting match. Muhova, meanwhile, now takes on Swiss woman Joe Tykman in the round of 32. As I mentioned at the start of this video, another rising young star, this one Alexander Bloch, also had his tournament end early due to an injury. Blocks was supposed to play number 8 seed Alex Di Manor today, but he pulled out yesterday actually due to an ankle problem. Bloch tweaked his ankle on a tarp near the back of the court during a practice session with Joao Fonseca. The Belgian announced his withdrawal yesterday in an Instagram post captioning it initially. Unfortunately, during today's practice, I heard a snap in my ankle while I sprained it, thanks to the quote, really necessary covers at the back of the court, which is why I had to withdraw from tomorrow's match that I was really looking forward to. A lot of frustration, but we move on. He later edited this caption to remove that really necessary part. And Alexander's coach Ruben Bemmelmans told the athletic that they will consider seeking compensation with there being no warning signs about the covers and the back of the practice courts. Bemblmans also said that the courts are already narrow, so that doesn't leave much space. And noticing Bloch's play, the Belgian, the 20-year-old, tends to play a little bit deeper behind the baseline. And the tarps, by the way, they are used to protect the courts for whenever it rains. Ironically, another Belgian, David Goffan, twisted his ankle on the tarp during one of his matches here at Roland Garros in 2017, and that forced him out of action for six weeks. Blocks would not be the first player to pursue compensation from a slam in such cases. Eugenie Bouchard filed a lawsuit against the USTA, which runs the US Open. After slipping on a slippery cleaning substance in a dimly lit woman's locker room at the US Open in 2015, Bouchard reached a settlement years later in 2018. Let me know in the comments if you think Bloch should be entitled to compensation or if he should have been more careful. I think I'm more on the side of Bloch that those tarps don't need to be so close to the court. They can stand to tuck them, you know, somewhere else to where they're not even visible at some point and then bring them out when it does rain. But Demonor, he would now take on Jakub Mengik in round three, who also had some pretty severe physical problems. Menjik came through a four-hour, 41-minute marathon match against Mariano Novone, winning 6'3, 2-6, 6-4, 1676, 13-11 in the 10-point tiebreak. This was an absolute crazy match. Both guys were struggling, understandably so, playing for four plus hours, and the temperatures today reached into the mid-90s. Menjik also started cramping in his leg during the 10-point tie break and received a loss of serve at one point, a loss of first serve. I still have no idea how he pulled this one out. On his seventh match point, he sealed the deal with a forehand winner and dropped to the floor. He didn't get up for some minutes. Very bizarre scenes. And it took over a minute before a medic finally showed up and gave Menjik some assistance. And after the match, Jakob told reporters, it's insane to play in this weather, especially in front of the sun. To be there for more than four and a half hours is just insane. Even with the brakes, you don't have that much time. The ball boy can't even bring you a towel. I agree with Jacob. I think this is insane. No other sport is like this. Having to play nearly five hours in heat like this, just crazy. And it's not like you have a teammate, it's just you and someone else. That's again why so many people believe that tennis is the hardest sport. There's a very valid argument in that. And it's also really why I'm not the biggest best of five proponent. I think in the future, the governing bodies might have to look at adjusting the rules and making it maybe five sets or best of five from the quarterfinals on. I think amidst all these player injuries that we're seeing now, the game is only getting more physical. Something has to change because we're putting these young people at risk in their health. Now, the winner of Demonor and Mendric takes on the victor of Andre Rublev and Nuno Borges. They both earned four set victories. Rublev defeated Camilo Ugo Katabelli 7-6 in the fourth set, while Nunor eliminated Mimir Kechmanovich. Now, when the women's draw dropped last Thursday, everybody and their mama talked the most about one potential third-round match between four-time champion Igos Fiontek and 2017 winner Yelena Ostapenko. Ostapenko notoriously holds a 6-0 head-to-head record against the pole. And coming into today, both were one win each away from this third-round affair. And according to a DM shared by Hallep Rubakina on X between him and Yelena, the Latvians seemed very, very eager to make it 7-0 here at Roland Garros. Iga did her part. She secured a solid 6-2-6-3 victory over Sarah Bailick, but Ostapenko fell short, bowing out to a different Polish player, Magna Lynette, 6'2-662. Ostapenko has yet to reach the fourth round at Paris since winning this title in 2017. Ega would for sure much rather play her countrywoman as opposed to Ostapenko, but Lynette is no pushover. Magna won their last match at the Miami Open a couple months ago. She's also armed with Agwa Radwansk, former top five player as her coach, who will definitely, I think, give good insights on how to give Ega fit tier. But still, I think Shviantech will be too tough with this being on clay. I'm also expecting Iga to learn a lot from that Miami match, so I'm putting her through this match in straight sets. One other notable threat in Sviantech's section, though, still remains. As Madrid champion, Marta Kostjuk prevailed. She got by Katie Volynet 6'7, 6'3, 6'3. Kostjuk now takes on 33-year-old Victoria Goyobic, who has only dropped six games the tournament thus far, and she just beat Alicia Parks 6'2-6-2. Above Sfiantek's section is Alina's Fitolina's. After the Ukrainian was ever so close to defeat in round one against Anna Bandar, she had a much more straightforward win today against Caitlin Caveto, winning 6 Love, 6'4. I think Svitolina would be the notable favor to come through here to the quarterfinals. I am not anticipating world number 95, Tameta Korpec giving her fits in round three. Korpec, by the way, was involved in some drama during her 6-2, 2-6-6-3 win against 32nd Cing Yu Wong. At 5'2 dupes in the opening set, Wong hit a forehand on the run that was called out by both the lion judge and the umpire. Wong was not happy and went back and forth with the chair, who was not budging. Xing Yu eventually went across the net herself, which is against the rules, to inspect the mark. And she received a code violation for unsportsman-like conduct for this. After the match, Korpatch opted to not shake hands with Wong because, in her words, Xing Yu was not satisfied with the marks. And Tamara also said that she was surprised this happened because she and Xing Yu have a good relationship, but she did not take kindly to Wong, insinuating that she was an unfair player. I think Wong did way too much here. I can see if it were like match point or deuce like five all in the third set or something like that. But I mean, she was already down in the first set and she was probably already gonna lose anyways. I respect the fight, but at some point you gotta let it go and realize that the umpire is not going to change their mind. But focusing back on this section, Belinda Bencic is also still here as a potential round of 16 opponent for Svitolina. But I think American Peyton Stearns, you cannot overlook her either. She could be a very dangerous opponent for Bencic. Going back to the men's side, Novak Djokovic, he by far has the most stacked section right now. Novak moved on to round three with a 6'3, 6'2, 6'7, 6'3 win against Valentine Royer in 3 hours 44 minutes. Djokovic was twice upper break in this third set, and he also had a match point in the third set tie break. But credit to Royer for playing inspired tennis, and Valentin was 1-12 at tour level heading into Roland Garros, but he did not play like it at all. And I feel like Novak was thinking like Serena, like all these guys are coming out and playing their best tennis against me, but against the lower rank players, they play like Kay. But Novak, who got into it actually with the Parisian crowd at one point, played decent for the most part in this match. And he hit one of the shots of the tournament thus far, the screaming forehand on the run. Again, it's insane that this guy is 39 years old. Undisputed GOAT, undisputed GOAT, who is doing it like him? Nobody. Up next for Nole is 19-year-old Joao Fonseca, who earned his first career two sets to love comeback win against Dino Prismich. Fonseca won 36, 46, 63, 6162. The 20-year-old Prismich was playing lights out tennis in the opening two sets. In the first two sets combined, he had 29 winners, 14 on force errors, 12 aces, zero double fault, but his level dipped a bit after taking that second set, while Fonseca's level only rose higher and higher and higher. He improved really on all fronts, but his return was much better because at one point Prismidch didn't face a break point in the match, but he started getting a better read on Prize Mitch's serve. I also want to add some context because at one all in the third set, we had a pretty interesting moment that could have changed the momentum of the match and Fonseca's favor. And really it was Prismitch's fault because at 30 all in this one-all game, Priestmidch had a forehand return in the net. But he more so blamed the one of the lines people for that because they were, I guess, a little bit too close to him for his liking when he made contact with that ball. But Priest Mitch was not happy. And he complained to the umpire a little bit. And the crowd, the pro phone second Brazilian crowd, let him have it. They booed him for that. And they also booed him when they came back out to play the following game 2-1 after they had that changeover sit down. So I think maybe Priest Mitch was routed a little bit. Not really making excuses for him, just giving y'all the context of the matter. But a great effort from the Brazilian, he got emotional too after the match. So big, big win, of course. And now he'll be playing for his first ever slam second week appearance against the GOAT Djokovic. And I will be all the way seated for this match. If YouTube didn't temporarily ban me from going live, I would do a live stream. And I got banned, by the way, due to Roland Garros copywriting me when I did the live draw reaction. But, anyways, Dual does seem to be a player that gets up even more for the big matches. So I am expecting him to play at a high level, at least for his standards. Still though, Novak is gonna get up even more, perhaps, for this one, and he's gonna be eager and keen to not lose. This is kind of crazy that Fonseca is over like twice as young as Novak because he's 19 and Novak is 39. Almost a 20-year age gap. That's insane. But if I were to have a prediction here, I'll give you all a set, but I think Novak will take this one in four sets. The winner of Djokovic, Fonseca, will take on the victor of Caspar Rude against Tommy Paul, another blockbuster third round match. Both Casper and Tommy advanced with impressive straight sets victories over Hadamat Majetovic and Lorenzo Sonigo, respectively. I'm expecting a really tight one between these two. Kasper leaves the head-to-head four to one, and he has won all three of their matches at slam level. I think some of that's just because Rude has more moxie and it's just a better big match player compared to Tommy. There's something about Paul, he just does not know how to bring it in the big matches, especially at the slams. I don't know what it is with him. But Djogovich's section, incredibly brutal. And it's a stark contrast from the one formerly belonging to Taylor Fritz. 27th seed, Rafa Hodar, is the only seed remaining in this one. The Spaniard got a tough four-set win over Ozzy James Duckworth, and his compatriot and 21st seed was also here, Alejandro Davidovich Faquina, but Davidovich Faquina lost to Tiago Tidante in four sets. Not only did Alejandro lose the match today, but he lost his coach, Mariano Puerta. There were earlier reports through France TV that Davidovich Faquina and Puerta had an argument after Alejandro's opening round win against Demir Zumer, which he cleared up in his press conference today. And Davidovich Faquina said that everything was normal after that Jumer match. Puerta told Alejandro that he was feeling unwell, so he went back to the hotel room to rest. And then he later sent a text to Davidovich Faquina saying that he's no longer gonna be coaching him. According to Alejandro, he Mariano took a flight back to Miami and said nothing to any of Davidovic Faquina's team members and did not return Davidovich Faquina's wife's calls. Puerto, by the way, a former top 10 player, and he finished runner-up here at Roland Girls, losing to Rafa Nadal, although he did get banned twice for doping offenses. Alejandro hired Mariano earlier this year in January after he split from Felix Mantila. And Davidovic Faquina ended up saying that he didn't wish any ill will towards Puerta and that he hopes everything goes well if he works with a new player. Yeah, that's a bad that's just awful. A horrible, horrible thing to do to abandon your player like that. I mean, obviously, we still have to hear uh from Puerta's side of the story, but that is a horrible, just a reputation hit, I feel. Now, wrapping things up and looking ahead to day five's order of play, starting out on Philippe Chatrier is actually different, it's a men's match, and it is world number one, Yannick Center. He will take on Juan Manuel Sarundalo. I'm wondering if Center requested the earlier start, and I think maybe he knows that he can't get all of his matches in the nighttime, so eventually he's gonna have to play. Earlier in the day. So if that's the case, then why not have it now? But after center, Surundalo is Deion Perry going up against Anne Lee, the American, then Sablanka against Elsa Jacquemont, and then Artarinonesh against Matteo Bairdettini. On Suzanne Longland, Mois Kwame, the 17-year-old Phenom, hopes to continue his run. He takes on Daniel Vallejo. Then Americans, Amanda Anisimova, and Coco Golf follow Vallejo Kwame, and then yet another American Ben Shelton wraps up play there. On Simon Mathieu, you have Naomi Osaka opening up play there against Donovekic. Then is Gaston, Hugo Gaston against Francisco Sarondolo. Then the Canadians wrap up things with Felix Soger Al-Yassim and then Victoria Mboko. Court 14 also has a good order of play. There's Ivo Jovic against Emma Navarro, followed by another American, Francis Tiafo, who takes on Hubert Herkac, and then yet another American, Madison Keyes, plays Antonia Ruzich, and then Stefano Citipas plays Matteo Arnaldi. That is all I have for this Roline Girls Day 4 update. Let me know your thoughts on all the crazy stuff I covered from Rabakina. Do you think that she can rebound for Wimbledon as well as Haley Baptiste? Man, when do you think that we'll see her back on court? Hopefully, maybe by Australian Open 2027. I don't know, but it didn't look good. Also, are you team Blocksh and Team Davidovich Falkina and those controversial topics that I covered? And then to comment below your predictions for Djokovic Fonseca. Again, make sure you subscribe and click that notification bell so you are notified whenever I post my day five recap video. And thank y'all so much for watching for your support. I will see y'all next time here on Christian's Court.