Qualified in the fight, after two last rounds won in three sets, Clara Burel (21 years old, 131st in the world) had inherited a first match clearly within her reach since she faced the Australian wild card Talia Gibson, 18 years old and 340th. The French did not miss her chance by winning 6-3, 6-4 after having been broken at the start of each set.
A service still too crumbly
Arrival without coach in Australia “because she wishes to take [son] time to choose the right person”, Burel is doing quite well on her own, showing an unusual maturity for such a young age. However, she would benefit from the eyes of a coach as her room for improvement seems great, especially in the service. With only 42% of first balls on the whole of his 1st round, 3 aces for 9 double faults and an average speed of 114 km/h in second, the former pupil of Thierry Champion would surely have avoided the loss of his two service games, if she had not offered herself to hard-hitting returns from her opponent.
In the next round, Burel will face the winner of the 100% Czech duel between another qualifier Sara Bejlek (16, 175th) and the winner of Roland-Garros 2021 Barbora Krejcikova (21st).
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