Serena, Anisimova win on French Open Day 5

A generational battle is on deck in Paris after three Americans advanced to the third round of the French Open on Day 5 on Thursday.
 

Three-time French Open champion Serena Williams booked her place in the Round of 32 with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Kurumi Nara of Japan. 
 

She’ll be joined in Round 3 by 20-year-old Sonya Kenin, who earned a walkover when No. 22 seed Bianca Andreescu of Canada was forced to withdraw from the tournament Wednesday, and 17-year-old breakout star Amanda Anisimova, who defeated No. 11 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, 6-4, 6-2. 
 

Williams and Kenin will now meet for a spot in the fourth round of the season’s second Slam. Highlighting the age gap, 37-year-old Williams won her first French Open main-draw match in May 1998, six months before Kenin was born. 
 

Williams, who last won the French Open in 2015, and Kenin have never played before, meaning it will be the 26th different American Williams has faced in a major. But if history is anything to go by, Kenin will have her work cut out for her—only six different U.S. women have dethroned the Queen at a Slam. 
 

By reaching the third round, Kenin is into the Round of 32 at a major other than the US Open for the first time. She reached the second round of Wimbledon in 2018 and the Australian Open in January, but she lost in the first round of her only other Roland Garros appearance last spring.
 

Also making waves this week in Paris is teenager Anisimova (pictured above), who has now upset Sabalenka in the first two majors of the year. The 17-year-old had never won a main-draw match at a Grand Slam before 2019. Now she has five wins under her belt, following a surprise run to the fourth round in Melbourne and now to the third round in France.
 

Anisimova, currently ranked No. 51 in the world but set to rise to a new career-high after the tournament, will face Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania on Saturday, with the winner of that match set to take on either Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia or Aliona Bolsova of Spain. It guarantees there will be at least one unseeded woman in the quarterfinals.
 

With Madison Keys in action against Priscilla Hon of Australia later on Thursday and Sloane Stephens already through following her second-round win on Day 4, there could be five American women in the third round for just the third time in the past 15 years. You have to go back to 2004 when there were more U.S. women still in the draw at this point of the tournament. 
 

On Thursday, Williams punched her ticket to Round 3 in much more convincing fashion than in her opening-round win over Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko. 
 

Williams sent down 10 aces and dropped just nine points on serve against Nara to reach the third round in Paris for the 15th time in her career. She broke Nara in the eighth game of the opening set after the Japanese had saved six break points in her previous service game, and she took command of the second set behind consecutive breaks to build a 5-1 advantage. 
 

Nara saved Williams’ first match point to hold serve for 5-2, but the 23-time Grand Slam women’s singles champion served it out to love to move on in the tournament. It was Williams' 801st career win and her 65th match win at Roland Garros, the most among active women. 
 

Anisimova’s path to the Round of 32 was very different, despite the straight-sets scoreline.
 

Her contest against Sabalenka featured a combined 11 breaks of serve. Anisimova lost her serve in two of her first three service games to fall behind 3-2, but she broke the Belarusian in the sixth and 10th games of the set to take an up-and-down 39-minute opening frame.
 

The second set was just as inconsistent, with five of the first six games going to the receiver. The turning point of the match came when the American teenager converted the fourth break point of a lengthy 2-3 service game to forge ahead 4-2. She held for 5-2 and then broke Sabalenka a final time to seal victory. 
 

In a match played almost exclusively behind the baseline, it was Anisimova who controlled her aggression the best. And while she had six more unforced errors than winners, it proved just enough to outlast the free-swinging 11th seed, who recorded 35 miscues to 13 winners.  
 

“I never passed a round at the French Open, so obviously it's super special," Anisimova said. “It feels great. I'm really happy with my performance today. You know, I was getting ready to play Aryna because I knew it was going to be a tough battle today, which it was. I'm just really happy that I got through this round.”

At age 17 years, nine months, Anisimova was the youngest of six teenagers to make the second round, the most at a major since 2013.  Now she's bidding to become the first teen to win a Grand Slam title since her idol Maria Sharapova, who was 19 years, 132 days old when she won the 2006 US Open.
 

Taylor Fritz, the lone American man left in the singles draw, plays No. 18 seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the last match on Court 6 on Thursday evening.