Susan Bandecchi, 27 and ranked WTA 215, survived a late scare to beat Dominika Salkova 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in Roland Garros qualifying, saving two match points on her way to the third and final round of qualification.
The scoreline tells the narrowness: Bandecchi closed out a three-set match that swung back and forth, and by surviving those two match points she advanced to the decisive qualifying stage where one more win places a player in the Paris main draw.
Bandecchi’s victory is the kind of single-match moment that matters today. Reaching the third round of Roland Garros qualifying leaves her one victory away from the tournament proper, and at 27 with a WTA ranking of 215 she is on the cusp of breaking into a Grand Slam main draw at a point in her career when opportunities like this are especially consequential.
The qualifying competition at Roland Garros is a gauntlet: players must win multiple matches over successive days for a shot at the main draw. That framework makes Bandecchi’s recovery from two match points more than dramatic detail; it is the functional difference between an immediate exit and keeping her Paris campaign alive.
Tension will carry into her next opponent. Bandecchi is scheduled to play Viktoria Hruncakova, who holds a WTA ranking of 224. The ranking gap between the two is narrow, and the match will be a tight, winner-take-all contest that determines who earns a place in the tournament proper.
Elsewhere in the draws, Leandro Riedi advanced in the men's qualifying after defeating Gianluca Cadenasso 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 7-5. On the other side of qualifying fortunes, Remy Bertola was eliminated in the second round when Facundo Diaz Acosta beat him 6-3, 6-4. Those results underline how stretched and unforgiving the Roland Garros qualifying weeks are for players trying to reach Paris.
On the WTA Tour outside Paris, Jil Teichmann moved into the quarterfinals of the WTA 250 tournament in Rabat by defeating Alycia Parks 6-3, 6-4, a reminder that while some players fight through qualifying in Paris, others are already through to later rounds at concurrent events.
The immediate, practical takeaway is simple: susan bandecchi’s run continues, and her next match against Hruncakova will determine whether she plays in the Roland Garros main draw. After a match that required saving two match points, she arrives at that final qualifying test with the single most important thing in sport—momentum earned under pressure—and a chance to convert it into a place in Paris.
