The good news. And a hell of a performance. The Frenchwoman Clara Burel, 51st in the world at 22, beat the American world No.5 Jessica Pegula 6-4, 6-2 in 70 minutes and joined another Frenchwoman, Océane Dodin (95th), in the third round of the Open from Australia on Thursday.
Burel equals his best Grand Slam result. Dodin, victorious over Italian Martina Trevisan (59th) 6-4, 6-4 earlier in the day, will play her first third round in a major tournament, at 27 years old. Another Frenchwoman, Diane Parry (72nd), reached the third round the day before.
This is the first victory of Burel's career against a top 10 player, after five defeats, and even her first success against a member of the top 20. Pegula had a break lead in both sets ( 1-0 and 2-0) but her 31 unforced errors, against only nine winning shots, were fatal to the American.
The latter, aged 29, remained in three quarter-finals in Melbourne, a stage of the competition that she reached but never exceeded in the four Grand Slam tournaments.